The Association of Home Information Pack Providers has just announced an additional 12 locations around the country where Home Information Packs will be trialled. These are Reading, Basingstoke, Woking, Manchester, Cardiff, Coventry, Hereford, Bristol, Leicester, Nottingham, Plymouth, Liverpool and Chelmsford. Commenting, Paul Broadhead, Deputy Director General of AHIPP, said: "The early roll-out will allow a phased implementation. By launching Packs ahead of the June deadline we aim to avoid a 'big bang implementation'. While criticism from industry bodies cannot be ignored, we have received a hugely positive response". To date, over 140 estate agents have registered for the 'trials' and Broadhead reports that "people seem to like the idea of the packs".

The NAEA's recent steps to prepare its members for the introduction of Home Information Packs (HIPS) has been welcomed by the Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP) as a number of NAEA courses designed to inform and prepare agents for HIPs kick off on 1st December 2006.

Members of the NAEA have been invited to a series of HIPs courses that will run across the country commencing next month. The courses aim to inform estate agency staff on how to deal with the packs and will provide vital information on all stages of the process from what's in a pack to potential areas of dispute.

The courses, which provide estate agents with an opportunity to prepare for the packs mandatory introduction next year, will also offer background information to HIPs, advising agents about their role and responsibilities.

Paul Broadhead, Deputy Director General for AHIPP said: "Despite the NAEA's continued campaign against HIPs I am delighted to see that they are now facing the reality that as of 1st June 2007 HIPs will happen".

Yvette Cooper, Minister for Housing and Planning has spoken of her confidence in the market led take up of Home Condition Reports (HCRs) and her determination to see the HCR introduced into the mandatory Home Information Pack which comes into force next June. Speaking at the first AHIPPS annual HIPS Conference in London, Mrs Cooper said: "If anyone out there thinks this is the end of the HCR, I would say to them that this is certainly not the case. Through the dry run coming up in November and into 2007 we are working with the consumer and the industry at large, to promote the gradual market-led introduction of HCRs. Mandatory HCRs are still on the table if the industry fails to make a go of the voluntary uptake."

In the House of Lords on 11th October, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), Baroness Andrews, spoke about future opportunities for Home Inspectors. She explained: "The trials and testing involved in the voluntary rollout (of HIPS) will absorb people in training. Some 470 Home Inspectors have completed their training and 177 have been issued with their Diploma. The first of those qualified Inspectors will be involved in the trials we are about to start and in the subsequent rollout, and as they roll out, more will be needed. They will almost certainly be needed in order to meet the demand for Energy Performance Certificates because at the moment they are the only people qualified to issue them. She continued: "However by 2009 when the rental market will become involved by being required to prepare Energy Performance Certificates, we will need a lot more Inspectors. As we are talking about 1.8 million rental transactions, many more qualified people will be needed to award the Certificate."

Paul Broadhead, Deputy Director General of the Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP), of which HIP HIP Hooray is a full member, has reminded estate agents that HIPs are on their way and that the Home Condition Report is far from finished. In the latest issue of the Negotiator magazine, he urged agents to be aware that "HIPs are soon to be a reality, and please do not think that the Home Condition Report has been binned...In one year's time HIPs will be part of the buying and selling process and we predict that Home Inspectors will be busy, that a certification scheme for them will be in place and that many, many agents will have embraced the whole process."

Reinforcing the point on BBC Radio 4's Money Box programme, he explained "We've been inundated with estate agents, Home Inspectors and consumers for further information about the (HIP) rollout. There's definitely an appetite for Home Information Packs with a Home Condition Report."

A new earning opportunity for Home Inspectors to value residential properties has been announced by the Government's Awarding Body for the Built Environment (ABBE). By November it plans to have a new qualification in place for qualified Home Inspectors to enable them to value residential properties. James Westley, Research and Development Manager for the Awarding Body, said "ABBE is working with the Council of Mortgage Lenders, Asset Skills and industry representatives in developing the award. It is intended that the award will be a two unit (National Occupational Standards) stand alone qualification with a short online exam of around 30-40 minutes that can be taken immediately after the Diploma in Home Inspection (DipHI) exam or at another time. ABBE envisages the award development phase to be completed by the end of September 2006. It could take the Qualifications and Curriculums Authority (QCA) up to 8 weeks to complete the award application process. This takes the project to an envisaged end of November delivery point".

Home Inspector Training Ltd is already considering the potential of this additional fee earning opportunity with a view to running a 'Valuation' training course for its trainee Home Inspectors.