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11th November
2008
Clearly Gordon Brown regarded the calibre of his Housing Minister to be just a bit more important in the current climate than in years gone by. Why else would he appoint a heavyweight former Foreign Secretary to the post? He clearly must have accepted that the HIPs debacle, overseen by Labour's previous seven ministers, has contributed not only to our present housing crash, but also the prospects of his party's re-election.
In just a few weeks time homeowner
electors will discover that, with Christmas out of the way, their
plans to immediately put their properties on the market will be
thwarted by Nanny Brown. Not only will they then have to write
a £350 HIPcheque before they can fly the flag board, but
they have to wait for uncertain parts of the HIP to return first. No
one, not even our masters in this - the Department for
Communities and Local Government, seem to know what's going on.
Confusion, not for the first time where HIPs are concerned, reigns
supreme.
Ask 10 estate agents what needs to be
done on 2/1/09 before details can be printed, web uploaded, board
erected and you will get 10 different replies , why - because
no one knows, and the CLG, for one, doesn't even seem to care. In
these conditions, can the politicians seriously expect agents to
police a policy of non-marketing their clients' homes for them? Indeed
do most agents even know, for instance, what bits of the HIP they do
need back and which bits they don't before they can get cracking?
As far as I can gather, if Ms Beckett does
nothing the law stands - no 'First Day Marketing' until some parts of
the HIP are paid for and back, what parts - how long - who knows. To put
the brakes on this debacle she needs authority from Parliament in the
form of a legislative vehicle, even the 'suspension powers' she
currently has need to take a similar route if she is of a mind to halt
the whole HIPs process, and I see no activity on this front at
present.
For goodness sake Margaret, what's left of
the estate agency profession plead with you - be brave, do
something, get on with it , be the one to wield the secateurs on
'first day marketing' (but preferably on the whole HIP bush) and
you may just be the first to encourage the green shoots of
property market recovery in the New Year.
Editors note. Trevor Kent's petition to No
10 Downing Street calling for 'First Day Marketing' to continue has
attracted 1500 signatures putting it in the top 70 of nearly 6000. It
can be found at
Http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Homeinfopacks
TREVOR KENT is former president of the National Association of Estate Agents and a regular broadcast property commentator based in Gerrards Cross, South Bucks.
01753 885522 ISDN by appointment
© Trevor Kent
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