A story that has been brewing for sometime now is that of the Home Improvement Packs or HIPS. By June 1st of this year everyone selling their house will have to have an inspector come round at the cost of £600-£1000 to issue the seller with the pack. The problems associated with this scheme have been foreseen for a long time but the government has done absolutely nothing about it. There is a serious lack of qualified inspectors to keep up with demand which will mean that those with houses who want to put their property on the market after 31st May will have to wait if they have not managed to get an inspector round. This could mean a massive shortage in available housing for period of time - possibly months - and artificially driving the cost of housing up even further, whilst leaving many sitting on property they want or need to get rid of. So far only 1,000 inspectors have been trained, out of an original target of 7,500. The cost of training these pointless inspectors is £3,500 each - more money wasted. The Council of Mortgage Lenders and various other bodies have been calling for a delay for some time now, yet so far the calls have fallen on deaf ears. A pointless scheme, that has cost us money and will now impact a whole industry and those wanting to buy and sell property. And all of it very avoidable. Michael Gove, the shadow housing minister, has described the scheme as "expensive and deficient red tape."
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