ROOF Blog

The Conservative Party would scrap home information packs (HIPs) ‘in a matter of weeks’ after coming to power, the Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps said yesterday.

The pledge follows claims by estate agents that the packs are impeding a housing market recovery, as potential sellers regard the typical cost of between £300 and £400 as another disincentive at a time when homeowners are already reluctant to move.

One of the reasons that property prices have risen since April is that the amount of stock on the market is low. Mr Shapps said: ‘House prices are rising because supply is restricted. HIPs have not helped.

‘The main priority is to scrap them. They are easy to suspend and there are emergency powers we can use to do so. This can happen very quickly. HIPs will be gone in a matter of weeks.’

Tenants living in social housing would be able to benefit from a national house-swap scheme planned by the Conservatives, Grant Shapps, the shadow housing minister, said today.

He told the National Housing Federation conference that the Tories wanted to make it as easy for social tenants to move as it is for people living in private housing.

Under the current arrangements, social tenants are four times less likely to move than people who rent privately.

‘If you are a social tenant, you don’t have the same opportunities as other renters or home-owners. The system means that your aspirations are squeezed, your expectations lowered, and your horizons are limited,’ Mr Shapps said.

‘Today I can announce that a future Conservative government will facilitate a nationwide affordable-house-swap programme.

‘We will introduce an open database connectivity platform to ensure that – for the first time ever – every family in social housing will have the chance to relocate by exchanging their home for another one, anywhere in the country.’

Tenants who receive local housing allowance (LHA) will be able to choose to have their rent money paid directly to their landlord if the Conservatives win next year’s general election. Grant Shapps, shadow housing minister, will announce today at the Crisis national conference in Birmingham that a Conservative government will revert to the way housing benefits were handled before last year’s government reforms, which are due to be reviewed before April 2010. Shapps is expected to say that the current system is deterring landlords from renting property to tenants receiving LHA: ‘Fearful that rent money may never be paid, some landlords routinely include the words ‘No HB’ in their ads, further restricting the supply of housing for affordable rent.’

Government figures obtained by the Conservatives show that there were 3.9 million cases of antisocial behaviour last year – or nearly 11,000 a day in England and Wales. The majority – 2.3 million cases – were reports of ‘rowdy or inconsiderate behaviour’, with 254,000 reports of nuisance neighbours. The Conservatives have said they would axe anti-social behaviour orders and introduce night time ‘grounding orders’ instead.

A freedom of information request by Andrew Slaughter, London MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush, has found presentations made by the Conservative leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council to senior Tory figures calling for limiting social housing to the old, infirm and disabled in a bid to solve the ‘concentration of deprivation’. Council leader Stephen Greenhalgh suggested a range of ‘radical reforms’ including wanting to see social rents rise to market levels; welfare payments based on need rather than rent paid; an end to tenure for life by those in need of social housing; five-year reviews of existing tenants to check on changing circumstances; and demolition of some of the borough’s largest council estates.

The Conservatives have called for the eco-town programme to be scrapped saying that developers are running scared from the plans. Shadow housing minister Grant Schapps said the ‘small print’ of the draft legislation published last week reveal that plans for the eco-towns had now been pushed back to 2020, but John Healey said he would be making an announcement within the next two weeks on all potential eco-town sites.

The Conservatives have warned that equality legislation could stop government plans to give local people greater priority for council housing. Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said the measures would be illegal and questioned if funding for the £1.5 billion cost of the programme would be diverted from the Decent Homes initiative, which aims to take every council and social property in the country to a decent standard. The government has denied this.

A record number of young people are not in any form or education, employment or training (Neets), according to figures from the Conservatives. Nearly 860,000 people aged 16–24 were not in jobs, school or training, up from 629,000 in 2000. The Tories suggest that the recession, along with government cuts to sixth-form funding, apprenticeships and further education college capital spending have contributed to the problem, and they will create a £100 million fund to help young people engage in further training or employment.

Conservative MP Mark Pritchard has called for wealthy criminals to pay towards the cost of keeping them in prison, as part of a larger review into how society paid for justice. He argues the cost of keeping a prisoner in jail is £40,000, and said at a time of hardship criminals should be made to pay towards the costs of feeding, housing and guarding them.

Meanwhile, Conservative Party leader David Cameron welcomed the docking the wages of MPs who break the rules on and suggested they could also be banned from the Commons for a period of time. Gordon Brown announced the review into MP expenses will be speeded up, but Mr Cameron is calling for immediate action.