Lords consider Hip hop

Opposition parties are lining up for one last attack one Home Information Packs hoping the House of Lords will provide the perfect setting to ambush the policy to force a delay on implementation.

The Conservatives are set to table a motion in the Lords next week which they hope will force a vote on whether or not to scrap Hips.

Traditionally the second Chamber does not oppose secondary legislation but the Tories and LibDems are hoping for a vote to block the rules which would implement Hips on 1 June.

The Government does not enjoy any kind of comfortable majority in the Lords and Opposition parties are confident they could win a spoiling vote that could force a delay.

The motion will coincide with a report on Hips by the Lords select committee on statutory instruments, due next Tuesday at the earliest, which is expected to be massively critical of the new policy.

The Tories have long been hostile to Hips, with shadow housing minister Michael Gove part of the strong pressure last year that saw the scrapping of the compulsory Home Condition Report.

Gove this week told the BBC politics show that a Conservative Government would scrap Hips saying the new regime “will force everyone selling their house to slap another £500 on the cost, for no real benefit… there’s absolutely no case for making housing more expensive”.

Pretty strong stuff from a Party that is currently more than a little bashful about making any kind of election promise and worrying for those who have invested money in preparing for the regime or plan to make a killing when Hips are introduced.

Step forward the Association of Home Information Providers with their calm and measured response to the Tories tactics.

An Ahips press release this week ran as follows “Mike Ockenden director general for the Association of Home Information Pack Providers has blasted the latest Tory opposition to Hips as feeble and desperate, questioning their motivation”.

Ahipps claims the Tories being “anti-democratic” in their behaviour for “jumping on the coat tails of those industry bodies who have called for a delay”.

I’m sure David Cameron’s advisers are scurrying around Conservative Central Office at the moment cooking up an appropriate riposte to such a cutting political attack.

But, jokes aside, the Tories are tapping into the legitimate concerns of many about the effect of the new regime and the long-running calls -albeit we are now a little late in the day- for a delay until a better cost benefit analysis can be done.

And quite what is wrong with drawing political attention to the legitimate concerns of the likes of the Council of Mortgage Lenders and National Association of Estate Agents I guess only Ahipps would know.

Elsewhere, former managing director of Hamptons Mortgages Kevin Duffy will join brokerage Robert Sterling as managing director in the autumn, and lead ambitious expansion plans at the company.

Duffy had considered a lending role as a possible next step on after Hamptons but will instead take the reins at the north London and Manchester-based brokerage and will be assured a generous welcome package at the firm.