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07 July 2010 / Michael Garson
Issue: 7425 / Categories: Blogs , Property
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Obit for HIPs

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Michael Garson on the demise of the Home Information Pack

Home Information Packs had a short, eventful but not exactly merry life with property professionals or consumers. It may be deemed churlish to record that they are likely to be mourned only by idealists who dreamt of radical change and by opportunists who made money from a mostly valueless process.

A HIP was born

Seller’s Packs started as a twinkle in the eye of the writers of the winning 1997 election manifesto. However, gestation was neither easy nor short as the embryo was hot housed at Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions by its putative father, John Prescott. Early life came to an abrupt end on a trip to the House of Lords in 2001 but the infant was revived and renamed the Home Information Pack. It finally came out in the Housing Act 2004.

Nursing the HIP

It moved house to Communities and Local Government and was then intensively spoiled by a succession of eager wet nurses, notably Ms Kelly and

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