Labour government bury a negative report about HIPs

The Telegraph reports that:

"A secret Government report has condemned compulsary Home Information Packs (HIPs) for property-sellers as a "waste of time".

Research commissioned by ministers, but never published, found that both sellers and buyers view the packs as "long, boring and technical" and see them as being of "no benefit".

...

The report concluded that house buyers and sellers "don't see the purpose" of the packs and show a "a lack of engagement, experience and interest". It added that "neither buyers or sellers are proactively enquiring about HIPs".

While the Government has spent almost £900,000 on an advertising campaign to promote the packs, the report also found that "amongst buyers and sellers, awareness, knowledge and understanding of HIPs is poor" and that consumers are "not sufficiently interested enough to ask to see a HIP".

The study also found that "estate agents struggled to think of positive comments about HIPs", with the majority considering the packs a "waste of time".

Grant Shapps, the shadow housing minister, said: "The Government has been caught red handed trying to hide a damning indictment of this pointless and expensive red tape. One year on, the public don't trust the paper these packs are written on.""

Who could believe that this Labour government would introduce a rubbish policy, bury negative reports on this policy and keep on coining the tax?