News Review
Brave new world in blue and yellow tinged green
By Sarah Davidson
the British voting public made history on the 6th of may. it took less than a week after the election results were in for conservative leader david cameron and Liberal democrat leader nick clegg to sign an historic agreement for the first ever conservative Liberal coalition and the first coalition government out of war time in Britain. industry reactions have
been lukewarm with everyone waiting to hear what June’s emergency Budget will hold. the detail of Britain’s future is still hazy, but there are indications that change is afoot for the mortgage industry. the coalition document
states: “the current system of financial regulation is fundamentally flawed and needs to be replaced with a framework that promotes
responsible and sustainable banking, where regulators have greater powers to curb unsustainable lending practices and we take action to promote more competition in the banking sector.” the tory policy of scrapping
the FSa and giving regulatory power to the Bank of england has been watered down with the FSa to remain intact, giving up “control of macro- prudential regulation and oversight of micro-prudential regulation” to the Bank, but retaining control of managing the day to day regulation in financial services. instead of the proposed
break up of banks, there will be a commission to review the merits of this idea, set to report results in a year’s time. the mutual sector looks
likely to benefit from government support. the manifesto document said:
“Competition in the mortgage market would be well received”
“We will bring forward detailed proposals to foster diversity in financial services, promote mutuals and create a more competitive banking industry.” competition in the mortgage market would be well received. imLa said in may that the lack of non- bank lenders able to lend is unhealthily restricted and indeed, brokers are clamouring for more competitive product criteria from lenders. Further measures were announced in the manifesto relating to financial guidance with the government stating:
“We will create Britain’s first free national financial advice service, which will be funded in full from a new social responsibility levy on the financial services sector.” the FSa said the service applied to financial guidance rather than regulated advice, but at the time of going to press there were no details available about how the levy would be applied. ami director robert Sinclair said that they would be working with all parties involved in deciding this detail to ensure that FSa regulated firms were levied proportionately. He said: “currently, the intermediary sector pays a disproportionate cost and we believe those with deeper pockets than small firms should perhaps absorb a larger part of the cost on levies such as this.”
RIP HIP Hooray joy as Home Information Packs scrapped
By Sarah Davidson
the coalition government has stayed mighty silent on its plans for the housing market and wider mortgage market, but it has earned one brownie point from the industry at least. the 20th may 2010 saw
the demise of the Home in- formation Pack, less than three years after it got off the ground. nicholas Leeming, com- mercial director of property portal
Zoopla.co.uk, said: “the packs were ultimately diluted to the point where buyers and mortgage lend- ers did not have the vital
information they needed – such as a structural survey – and they’ve been on bor- rowed time ever since.” the industry has on the
whole been delighted with the decision to abolish the packs with immediate ef- fect. Housing minister, grant Shapps, said the decision was: “a great example of how this new government is getting straight down to work by cut- ting away pointless red-tape that is strangling the market.” Peter Bolton King, national
association of estate agents chief executive, called the packs “pointless.” on the flip side, fears have been raised over the futures
4 mortgage introducer JUNE 2010
of all those in the HiPs in- dustry, whose jobs are now at risk. mike ockenden, director general of the association of Home information Pack Pro- viders, said anywhere between 3,000 and 10,000 jobs will be lost or seriously affected by the decision to scrap HiPs. He went further, saying
the government’s decision to implement the suspension of HiPs immediately would provoke legal action against them. Shapps had previ- ously committed to a review of HiPs before any decisions were taken. the fallout from this deci- sion is yet to take shape, but
one thing seems clear. the majority of people in the in- dustry are not surprised the packs are dead, nor are they sorry.
London-based estate agent
marsh & Parsons even went so far as to write the packs a formal obituary dubbing HiPs a “Frankenstein’s pol- icy of oddly bolted-together components.” one mortgage introducer
reader commented: “Latest news in....100,000 HiPs sur- veyors thrown out of work, millions of kiddies to starve, every kitten in uK to be beheaded... Bye bye HiPs, and good riddance to useless rubbish.”
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