The new government arrived with big scissors, red tape and a dolls house promising to reform the housing market. So they scrapped HIPs because they said that this would "free the housing market".
Clearly this didn't work as demonstrated by the pitiful volumes of transactions we're seeing at the moment. We accept that mortgage lending is weak, but the idea that scrapping one of the few seller qualifiers by getting rid of HIPs would encourage the market was fanciful at best.
Then, we were promised sweeping changes were going to be made to the Energy Performance Certificates, surely the most questionable aspect of recent property reforms. Amusingly, the shackles that were supposed to have been removed with their big scissors were being tightened up with the plan that agents couldn't market a property without the EPC,and the complete report needed to be included with the particulars.
We were surprised to say the least, that such reforming zeal could somehow be driven off-track so quickly, especially since the only real failings with HIPs was tying them to the marketing activity.
But ... Mr Pickles has now realised how difficult making changes to housing policy can be, and at the last moment, has delayed the decision until October.
We await the next instalment from the Great Reformers
