Commons defeats Conservative proposal agains Home Information Packs

Just a day after the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said that they will take the government plan to introduce Home Information Packs on June 1 in England and Wales to court because they believe that there were not proper consultations before making the decision to require them, a vote in Commons turned down a bid by Conservatives to halt implementation of the packs. The vote was 306 to 234 against the Conservative proposal, which would have introduced the energy performance certificate required in the packs separately from the other HIPs requirements.

Shadow communities secretary Caroline Spelman argued that the energy certificates have been introduced in Northern Ireland without the further HIPs requirements, and that the same thing could be done in England and Wales. However, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott criticized Conservatives for not voting to support the HIPs, saying that they were being hypocritical on environmental issues. One of the reasons for introduction of the energy certificates is to bring the UK in compliance with a EU directive that becomes active in 2009.

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Story link: Commons defeats Conservative proposal agains Home Information Packs