Fall in polls relights Grant Shapps love for HIPs

A fall in the polls was bound to be the trigger for Grant Shapps to renew his attack on the beleaguered HIP. This time we have him picking up on the results of an IPSOS MORI poll commissioned by AHIPP. In his attack which can be found HERE he picks up on the methodology and accuses AHIPP of manipulating the result by contacting people who had been engaged in the home selling process and ignoring those who had not! Not sure how he can expect a poll on home selling can be carried out without consulting with those who had not had recent experience in the process.

The statement is also misleading as it says 15% of those polled said they were deterred from selling their home. Clearly Mr Shapps (or as is more likely his researchers) have not studied the results closely as although they show that 15% were put off by the cost of the HIP, the fact is that 15% still went ahead and marketed their property!

This nonsense also comes at a time when many property professionals including estate agents Douglas and Gordon, known past contributors to the Conservative Party, have come out to say they now see the HIP in a different light and as a stage in the process which is actually helping to speed up the sale of property. The rebuttal also has no support when one looks at the latest market statistics showing property listings are now back to where they were before the HIP was introduced.

This all suggests Grant Shapps is struggling to keep up with the views of those very people he could find himself working with in the future, as well as current market trends. This does not bode well when he and his Party are asking us to vote Conservative and in so doing elevate him to the post of Housing Minister.

This outburst also smacks of hypocrisy. It was not too long ago that Grant Shapps was spearheading a campaign to find ways to improve the sale process and was actually instrumental in commissioning what was labelled as the ‘Home Buyers Review’ SEE HERE . Concerned about the time it was taking to sell property Grant Shapps put together a group of experts to examine and report back on how the process could be improved. Surprise, surprise the survey was carried out but the results have never been released. Why? Well I am sure I can leave you to draw your own conclusions.

We should all be calling upon Mr Shapps to publish the results of his report rather than attack the results of a report that was commissioned by an independent and well respected survey body. We should also respond to Grant Shapps on Twitter as this was how he launched his recent attack on the HIP. Find him HERE: