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Well done

Down with the nanny state!

Just seen Michael Gove give a good performance in the HoC, body language between Kelly and Cooper was interesting too and made you wonder which was the junior minster!

Very good.

Now to get it scrapped as a waste of time and money.

Quite a victory. If only we could get rid of the whole thing altogether.

Kelly and Cooper look like a couple about to exchange rank in 6 weeks time.

Delay is good, but I fear it will be back. Are we pledging to abolish it?

Reportedly, the HIPs will only apply to larger properties initially, and will be phased in for smaller properties on an unspecified timetable.

So the soak-and-criminalise-the-middle-class rules still apply, it seems.

Mr Gove's excellent work isn't completed just yet.

Another point is the cost of the pack will be at least £300 and the fine for not producing one is £200. What would you rather pay?

Well done Mr Gove.

A job well done and a future cabinet minister (Cooper) looks like damaged goods before she has started.

Useless bunch of wasters, they couldn't organise a proverbial drinking session in a brewery.

"... but still ministers were determined to press ahead. Why?"

Article 7 of Directive 2002/91/EC:

"Member States shall ensure that, when buildings are constructed, sold or rented out, an energy performance certificate shall be made available to the owner or by the owner to the prospective buyer or tenant, as the case might be"

"Article 15 - Transposition"

"1. Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive at the latest on 4 January 2006. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof ..."

"2. Member States may, because of lack of qualified and/or accredited experts, have an additional period of three years to apply fully the provisions of Articles 7, 8 and 9. When making use of this option, Member States shall notify the Commission, providing the appropriate justification together with a time schedule with respect to the further implementation of this Directive."

Gove 'believes' in the 'energy performance' nonsense (cos it's EU twaddle). What credibility does that give him?

Good work today, Michael Gove. Remember now is not the time to be magnanimous in victory - it's the time to kick the Government while it's down, given that they have only refrained (temporarily) from doing wrong, they have not done right. Just remember to repudiate the Directive that Denis has mentioned above at some point, there's a good chap.

So its all the EU's fault then. Can we ask if France, Germany,Spain, Netherlands et al actually implement this directive themselves, or have they taken the continental view in as we just wont bother thank you.

Energy Certificates - another piece of unecessary EU interference which costs the homeowner, with no guarantee that the buyer would take any action to improve efficiency and thus reduce carbon outputs.
Why not allow self-certification? Homeowners could input at no cost or little cost to a (government? careful!) web site, giving details of number of rooms, sizes of rooms, insulation types, boiler type, light bulbs, etc,etc,etc. This data would be used to make the calculations to provide a report and generate a certificate which could be printed out on the homeowner's computer printer.
Willful inputting of incorrect data would be subject to trades descriptions acts if the output is used as a part of a description of the property.
Too simple?

I liked Ruthie's professional fouls, playing Gove rather than the question, and trying to infer that he was not up to the job and had stolen someone else's questions.
As usual we find in the end that the whole shambles is down to the EU, with the demand for energy certificates. Why didn't NuLab ask for the 3 year derogation, instead of trying to hustle something through on the shambolic cheap.

Absolutely pathetically incompetent...

but a brilliant job by Michael Gove.

You really do not understand what this is all about and offer nothing constructive. Energy is a really big issue as is climate warming and you just use it as a political pawn!

The world has gone mad, there are people who have just given up their jobs to do this work, paid out up to £12,000 to train and now have nothing.

We agree it's a shambles and it just seems to get worse.

Given the price of property in the UK, a house with four or more bedrooms is a very large investment. I think it would be fair to assume that the potential investor, or their representative, would have more that sufficient competencies in large asset purchases. So what possible benefit would a HIP have? It is just an unnecessary expense.

A small point re 'accountability'. These packs are now to be introduced on 1st August - smack bang in the middle of Parliamentary Recess, with the House not due back for another 9 week - in the likely event that there will still not be enough assessors available all we will get is a teeny-weeny press release saying that it has again been pushed back. So no second outing at the Despatch Box for Mr Gove.

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