HOME INFORMATION PACKS – A SUGGESTION

Contribution from HRG supporter:

Ok, after a bottle of wine , here are my thoughts although I'm sure someone must have thought of this already and dismissed it out of hand and it would probably put me out of work but here goes:

I think that the problem lies in the way data is stored and accessed; and the answer is centralised data storage combined with not only licensed access but a broader set of records.

The knock on effect would speed up the selling process and would automatically create more uniformity across the whole of the country's housing stock, improve energy efficiency, solve some of the housing shortage and create and stimulate wealth within the economy and improve organic growth.

Here's how it works:

Currently, as you know, a Hip is comprised of several elements that have to be obtained from 3 or 4 different sources ( water board, local authority, landmark etc) - all at varying speeds and costs.
Secondly, Hip packs are confined to people selling their houses.

Thirdly, energy certificates are confined to properties being sold or let which seems daft if we as a nation are trying to reduce our carbon footprint.

and finally we have a housing shortage and an ailing economy when we also have so many homes empty or in such disrepair whilst we continue to build new homes

My suggestion is that we should:

• Make all Local Authority, property records , water / drainage, land , title etc centralised

• issue every dwelling in the country a property MOT ( Hip pack) containing an energy survey, electric, gas and stock condition report which gives an overall score with recommendations for improvement. ( this would mean using some of the housing / energy budget to enable the costs to be paid for initially)

• Add These reports to the central file which is only accessable by the home owner or an agent acting on their behalf and which are then simply updated whenever there are changes made by whoever is making those changes ie the owner/ occupier, local authority , water etc - so that all these parties have a duty ( as they do currently, to keep their part of the records up to date)

• This shouldnt increase bureaucracy as most of it already exists, its just fragmented currently.

• Phase two would be to issue grants/ incentive for any property falling below a certain rating to enable it to come up to a liveable standard and energy rating.

• When a person is selling their home, they then already have their own online login to their property records which they then pass over to their prospective buyer, or tenant in the case of rentals.

Ok, so the knock on effect of all this would be that :

1. The price of a hip would be uniform as it would be paid for centrally and would apply to every home.

2. It would stimulate the economy in terms of getting those properties up to scratch

3. would reduce sharp practice

4. speed up the process of exchange to home buyers to literally same day sales in theory.

5. improve our carbon footprint

6. give the country a true world lead in terms of the greener issue

7. Improve homelessness

8. Improve waste on new builds in favour of improving the existing housing stock

9. Create better warmth and security for our old

The advantages are endless and far outweigh the initial outlay.

I think if you added in a similar solution to commercial properties it would also stimulate the entreprenuers amongst us but I'll leave someone else to think that part through.

Thanks for listening