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Obviously Eric Pickles (Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Communities and Local Government; Brentwood & Ongar, Conservative) hasn't got much to do at the moment other than continually raise questions about EPCs, HCRs and HIPs! All power to his elbow of course but I have never seen compelling evidence that anything the opposition has done has altered the course of the EPC/HIP rollout until now, and its seems unlikely to change any time soon.

Anyway, your starter for 10:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment she has made of the impact stand alone home condition report without home information packs had on transactions in the home information pack area trials.

There were no stand-alone home condition reports as part of the area trials.

Well thats an obvious straight-bat reply to the 'stupid question of the week', where do we get the shadow secretaries nowadays? "Bog-standard comprehensives" might be an appropriate reply! HCRs were never trialled as standalone documents, they were firstly bundled into packs for free, then they were removed and offered to consumers as a paid-for bolt-on. The take-up rate was atrocious, something that doesn't make me happy, but then I knew many taking part in the trials, and I know that many consumers were never even offered the HCR, and some that were weren't encouraged to do so, or failed to have its benefits explained- goes a little way to evidence the appalling take-up rate in the 'unpaid HCR' part of the trials.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the role of the Building Research Establishment was in the home information pack area trials.

Building Research Establishment were sub contracted by Ipsos MORI to assist in the analysis and write-up of the findings of the area trials.

Er, blimey, thats a bombshell then! Certainly wasn't on my radar and lo and behold we find that one of the leading training provider and accreditation schemes was also asked to write up the results of the area trials. Sorry, but that was a very weak choice, I am not suggesting that BRE would have slanted the figures in any way, but clearly it gives anti-HIP campaigners some evidence that the Area Trials report could be disregarded or could be viewed as an 'inside job'. A very poor choice indeed.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on what date a home information pack will be required for a home placed on the market before a home information pack became compulsory to market it and which is not yet sold.

We continue to keep the operation of home information packs (HIPs) under review including the date when all properties marketed for sale would require a HIP regardless of when the property was first placed on the market.

Yes the drop dead date debate rumbles on, indeed we even have yet another sweepstake running on the forum, the umpteenth we have run all regarding those issues that proper leadership would have nailed down and given everyone due notice to prepare. Opinion varies but end of the year looks a favourite with one option that there simply is no drop dead date. Obviously with Labour taking a pounding at the ballot-box, all decisions are tied to the political situation. Expect to see nothing happen in a hurry other than a deferment of this 1 June implementation for First Day Marketing- probably to be postponed indefinitely and maybe another report commissioned on the status of HIPs and the progress made to date. Reason given for the slower-than-expected implementation timescales:- the economy and the the housing market are extremely weak at the moment.

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Labels: Parliamentary-Questions-and-Answers Eric-Pickles First-Day-Marketing Home-Condition-Report Area-Trial-Results