'Jack Russell' Shapps barks up wrong tree on SAFE

Here’s the good news: the SAFEagent scheme has been mentioned by housing minister Grant Shapps in Parliament.

And the bad news? Shapps doesn’t appear to know what it’s about.

Tessa Munt, Liberal Democrat MP for Wells, said that home owners have a duty to declare problems with their neighbours when they come to sell. She asked Shapps if landlords and letting agents should have a similar duty to disclose neighbour problems when a new tenancy agreement is entered into.

Shapps replied: “My hon. Friend makes a good point. It is important that when people move they know what their neighbours are like, whether for social housing, properties purchased or in the private rented sector.

“I encourage everybody thinking about renting to use an agent that belongs to something like the Safe Agent Fully Endorsed scheme, which provides reassurance that some of these checks are being carried out properly.”

It seems mean to have a go at Shapps since you can’t fault his tenacity as housing minister – he’s been the longest incumbent in living memory. However, we can’t resist telling you that in another Parliamentary debate, this time in the Lords, he was compared to a yappy little dog.

Lord Beecham said that Shapps was “a Jack Russell who is very lively and busy”. He had made no fewer than 127 announcements on housing since taking office, averaging about six a month.

But Lord Beecham said that Shapps’s action plan largely consisted of “announcements, consultations and reports”.

Which reminds us. Shapps made another series of announcements yesterday, reaffirming his commitment to putting housing centre stage.

There was plenty for home builders – the mortgage indemnity scheme, now called NewBuy Guarantee, is being extended to all buyers of new homes, not just first-time buyers, up to a value of £500,000. However, this is probably guaranteed to annoy estate agents and there was no mention of the private rented sector.

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2012-01-30a.534.0