Local Conservatives Launch Campaign Against the Government Home Information Packs in Southampton

Residents in Southampton are dismayed that they are to be guinea pigs in the latest Labour fiasco, Home Information Packs. On Friday it was announced that Southampton would be one of six test areas nationwide where people selling homes need to put packs together before putting properties on the market.

It is now accepted by most people in the industry that shifting the emphasis from the buyer to the seller to collate information about the property before it is sold is not the best way of doing things.

I am worried that this will drive up the costs of moving house, hurting homebuyers and sellers alike. I hope that the decision to trial these unnecessary and expensive bureaucratic packs has not been taken after the outspoken and ill-considered support from Southampton Labour MP, Alan Whitehead.

Mr Whitehead has been particularly keen to stress the environmental benefits of the packs yet in Northern Ireland we have already seen that we can put the environment first without Labour bureaucracy.

The Government claims that the packs are needed to implement an EU Directive to provide Energy Condition Reports when a home is sold. Yet in Northern Ireland the Directive is being implemented without introduction of Home Information Packs.