Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps’s statement that “half of HIPs money is wasted” is simply inaccurate.
He states that in 2008 1.1m HIPs were purchased, but only 650,000 homes were sold. Perhaps however Mr Shapps should have stopped to consider how many of these properties went on to be sold in 2009? While it is easy to interpret statistics on an annual basis this type of oversimplification makes accurate analysis impossible.
By using the statistics in this way Mr Shapps fails to take into account the most basic workings of the market. I’m also unable to see how this assertion corresponds with his previous claim that non-compliance levels for 2008 were 50%.
It must be noted that the Shadow Housing Minister is now alone in claiming that HIPs have had an adverse affect on the property market. His immovable stance on the issue is increasingly worrying, particularly given that property professionals are now almost universal in their calls for HIPS to be adapted rather than scrapped.
In the current climate both the industry and the public are in need of guidance, not contradictory or misleading statements.
