Two high-profile women — Yvette Cooper, the Housing Minister, and Kirstie Allsopp, the presenter of Channel 4’s Relocation, Relocation — have taken up opposing stances on home information packs (Hips). This diverting development should, if nothing else, highlight the issues surrounding this reform. So far, the debate over Hips, which become compulsory for all sellers in June next year, has excited only the ire or approval of the professionals.

Ms Allsopp claims that Hips will damage the housing market because the paperwork will deter people from selling. Some estate agents tend to this view, as does David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party, who says that he will scrap Hips if he comes to power.

For her part, Ms Cooper maintains: “Home information packs will make the highly inefficient housing market much more efficient.” As a result, she is set to announce further dates on the Hip implentation programme.

Ms Cooper argues that anyone who needs to sell will be happy to assemble the £600-£1,000 pack. This will contain a description of the property, a home condition report detailing its state and local searches. Ms Cooper may not have taken part in as many housing transactions as Ms Allsopp. But the minister’s personal experience — she is married with three children — has shown her how much money is wasted in searches and such like in the failed transactions that can litter the path towards the purchase of a family home.

The minister’s determination to press ahead with Hips underlines that the scheme is unstoppable — however much Ms Allsopp may grind her perfect teeth. But many of the consequences of the Hips revolution will not become clear until the system becomes law. For example, Hips should speed up sales — but only if mortgage lenders rely on the home condition report as a guide to the property’s value. This may happen in only around 40 per cent of cases.

Whatever other effects the introduction of Hips may have, one thing is clear. As the launch date approaches, buyers’ information expectations will increase. Suspicion will surround the seller who does not at the outset freely provide almost the same level of data as would be contained in the pack. The tacit rule that anyone selling a home will accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative and cross their fingers that the survey is not too rigorous, may be about to disappear.

NO LAUGHING MATTER

There is a cartoon element to the latest £1.7 billion Costa del Sol corruption scandal. Prominent persons arrested this week on suspicion of allowing homes to be built on protected land and other offences include Antonio Roca, Marbella’s chief of urban planning. Among other aspects under investigation is a claim that Roca used 120 companies to siphon off backhanders and gifts from developers, such as horses, a tiger (live) and a rhinoceros (stuffed, allegedly).

Marisol Yagüe, the Mayor of Marbella, is also under arrest. Do Spanish jails provide the services on which she depends, such as fake tanning, fake nails and bags of spending money? At the same time, the seriousness of this affair cannot be exaggerated. About 4,500 of the 30,000 illegally built homes, many of them owned by Britons, may be under threat of demolition (see page 27). The bulldozers are not likely to move in soon because owners would fight such action in the courts. Compensation could be payable to some dispossessed owners. But what sums would be appropriate redress for trickery of this sort? Even if not a single terrace is ever razed to the ground, Spain’s reputation as Britons’ favourite overseas property buying spot has already been undermined. Indeed, the integrity of Spain’s business community stands in question, as local, regional and central governments turned a blind eye to the sharp practices of the construction industry. What other corporate misdemeanours have officials condoned? The actions that the Madrid Government takes now will determine whether we think that it treats the interests of foreign property owners as a joke or as a grave obligation.

BOSS THE BUILDER

DIY or GSI? Or do you swing both ways? A Halifax survey out tomorrow will attest to the continued popularity of do-it-yourself. In the past few days, the Bricks and Mortar team has even spotted queues to enter the car parks at B&Q sheds. But how many of these apparently ardent DIY-ers would love to GSI (get someone in) instead, if only they could muster the accounting and other skills necessary to manage a builder. Sarah Beeny, of Channel 4’s Property Ladder, yet another redoubtable woman in property, explains how to be boss and get the best value from this relationship (see page 9). Think of her advice as your first step towards an MBA (master of builder administration).

anne.ashworth@thetimes.co.uk

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