Clause 7 - Contents of sellers' packs
Homes Bill
10:30 am
Mr Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 8, in page 6, line 22, leave out from `provision' to the end of line 24.
I am grateful for the birth condition report. I hope that we will have good news later on. Nigel is a nice name—despite its recent misuse in the Chamber by someone much more important than me.
The amendment has the simple purpose of removing the power of the Secretary of State to make different rules for seller's packs in different areas, properties, circumstances and so on—in other words, the amendment would prevent exemptions. It is pre-eminently a probing amendment that seeks to raise the issue of low-value, low-demand areas, which might be said to have dominated the Second Reading debate. The issue is obviously of considerable and understandable concern to several Labour Back Benchers. The hon. Member for Bassetlaw (Mr. Ashton) spoke about the problems of old mining homes that probably have a tiny paper value. Clearly, much pressure has been placed on the Minister behind the scenes to do something about the problem, but our sympathy is limited because it is of the Minister's own making. He is the first to admit that that situation raises all sorts of problems. Is one to draw lines on maps? Is one to use a particular value that may change? Is one to use a particular council tax band? That is a difficult conundrum for the Minister and his Department. It would be helpful if the Minister could give us just a teensy-weensy glimpse into the way in which his mind is working because, as before, we do not have the benefit of draft regulations to debate in Committee.
This problem, like so many others, is caused by the Government's desire to bash on regardless with imposing the seller's packs, with the force of law, in the teeth of opposition and criticism from a range of organisations and bodies. We take the view that if the seller's packs are to be obligatory, the Minister will have to look at exemptions. Sadly, the list of potential exemptions and exceptions to the Bill gets longer and longer, as the hon. Member for Bath and my right hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (Mr. Curry) have said. As matters advance, we discover more and more provisions that the Minister does not intend to impose and reasons why people should be exempted and excepted from them. However, it would be invidious to start drawing lines on maps or making similar distinctions. We take the view—expressed initially by my right hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon—that there could be a self-fulfilling prophecy whereby an extra stigma would be imposed on certain properties because of their exemption from the requirement for a seller's pack. We are talking about areas where there is already low demand, low values and possibly houses that have no real value at all. It would mean that a red line would be drawn around an area, and people would be told that they were not required to have a seller's pack—they would not even have that benefit.
Above all, it would be outrageous—I say this without having heard what the Minister has in mind—if he implicitly acknowledged the problems with seller's packs that we have continued to expound by making regulations saying that the packs should not apply in certain areas and for certain types of property. It would be even more outrageous if he thereby exempted large Labour-represented and controlled areas of the country from the so-called benefits of seller's packs, but left many other parts of the country subject to the full requirements of the legislation.
As I said, it is difficult to guess which way the Minister will jump on the issue. He has accepted that he must do something or he will have a major Back-Bench rebellion on his hands, but he has also spotted all the potential problems and difficulties. To use that much over-used phrase, the devil will be in the detail. I commend the amendment to the Committee.