Housing Red Tape
5th May 2009
Peter Aldous calls for measures to help boost the local housing market - such as suspending HIPs and raising the Stamp Duty threshold for first time buyers.
At a time when records show that the number of houses sold in Waveney has more than halved from 3,070 in 2006 to 1,436 in 2008, the Government are introducing yet more red tape that pushes up the cost of moving home.
In July the Government's Land Registry is hiking fees to register a new home or to buy an official property search by as much as 33%. The increases in the costs of official searches will in turn increase the cost of the already expensive Home Information Packs [HIPs]. This comes as new HIP rules came in to effect in April, which will further hinder sellers from putting their homes on to the market.
It is incredibly short-sighted of the Government to increase red tape on the housing market in the middle of a recession and to make the position even worse. Action needs to be taken to revive the market. The Conservatives are calling on the Government to use their emergency powers to suspend HIPs immediately and then abolish them completely and to also raise the Stamp Duty threshold for first time buyers, so as to take 9 out of 10 of them out of Stamp Duty altogether. These initiatives will give an important boost to the housing market in Waveney.
Peter Aldous
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Waveney
Wissett, Halesworth, Suffolk, IP19 0RA.
