Helping Innovate Property (HIP) – Blog, Housing Market News and Articles

With the conservative’s conference now finished and the focussed rallying of political troops coming to a natural lull we now see further reflection of the speeches and recently published papers.

Grant Shapps always provides some interest though feel he often lacks solid reasoning and/or alternatives to areas he dislikes. He is undoubtedly advised on certain areas though in regard to Home Information Packs and Energy Performance Certificates he just seems to be taking a ‘party line’; stating what he hopes the nation wants to hear.

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Welcome to Mike Ockenden, Chairman of the Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP) who has kindly agreed to spread a bit of light on how he sees the past and future of all things HIP related.
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One of the ‘cheapest’ Home Information Pack (HIP) providers who were favourably named in last months edition of Which have ‘withdrawn’ from the HIP market.

This demise has been inevitable for many of the cheap HIP providers including Promise Home Packs and we highlighted concerns last month in the article ‘Be aware of cheap, budget HIP & EPC providers‘. Promise are not the first HIP supplier to have left the market and certainly will not be the last.

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The Conservative party has made no pretence about its desire to ‘scrap’ Home Information Packs (HIPs) should as is likely it gain power in spring of next year. Is this a credible policy which can be backed with intellectual argument or is it simply an easy way of trying to win the populist vote?

In this article I will look at both sides of the argument and will, despite my vested interest in seeing the HIP retained, try and provide a balanced analysis of the issues.

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Cheap Home Information Pack (HIP) and Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) providers in the market place, are unfortunately not delivering the promised service or product at times, within the timescales agreed. It has been brought to our attention that a number of companies are taking excessive time to deliver or arrange EPCs, some have not received their HIP or EPC at all as the company has gone into liquidation and ceased trading.

Recently, we have received numerous calls from anxious concerned people who were looking for advice on what they could do in their specific problematic scenarios plus people who thought they had instructed us to carry out their HIP and/or EPC, when infact they had opted for a ‘cheap HIP provider‘.

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The Energy Saving Trust (EST) is close to be given access to the data gathered from Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) and this was recently outlined in the summary of responses to ‘The Next Steps: EPCs and the establishment of the Green Homes Service consultation.’

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After almost a year since our article ‘Should I train as a domestic energy assessor (DEA)? and the incredible number of responses and strength of feeling expressed from visitors, we felt it would be a good time to review the current situation.

Training as a domestic energy assessor and/or home inspector is still being  ‘sold’ in quite a widespread manner by what appears to be an increasing number of training providers. Is this because there is a need or a shortage within the industry? Or that training is now a growing profitable industry benefitting in these times of recession.

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BoKloK is a new concept of housing, first pioneered in Scandinavia by furniture giant IKEA and construction firm Skanska. In the UK, property company Live Smart @ Home has the exclusive licence to build BoKlok properties and its first development is at St James Village in Gateshead, Tyne & Wear.

This is the first development in the UK of the BoKlok concept which is also currently active in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. The arrival and development of these exciting properties in Gateshead further enhances the constant improvement and regeneration of the area. The state-of-the-art, Scandinavian-style timber framed properties are aimed at households earning between £15,000 and £35,000 a year and are being sold on a rented, outright sale or shared ownership basis.

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The commercial EPC legislation came into force on April 2008 and now the large majority of commercial properties require a Commercial Energy Performance Certificate before marketing of the property can legally commence.

Whereas the domestic equivalent do vary slightly they are generally under a £100; whereas the commercial EPC is generally £350 and upwards and very much dependant on the individual property. The similarity between commercial and domestic energy performance certificates names can give people an impression they will be similarly priced. The difference in cost is due to the much increased time and expertise required to produce the commercial EPC both on-site and off-site.

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The Fuel Poverty bill has been thrown out of parliament as not enough MPs turned up to vote on the bill. With rising energy prices and the challenging financial situation at present surely this was a good move to help those less vulnerable than themselves, who can not claim £60k for a second home.

The Fuel poverty Bill was put forward by David Heath, the Liberal Democrat MP. It is estimated that there are currently 5.5 million households living in fuel poverty; this figure is calculated by the number of people where one tenth or more of their income goes on gas and electricity bills.

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The continuing credit crunch is affecting homeowners in great numbers, and with no sign of improvement imminent it could be worth looking at just how efficient your home is.

We all think we have done enough to improve our homes, but how many of us have? And when it comes to the crunch, just how much can be saved and how?

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