黑洞社区鈥檚 new online comment facility has fired up furious debate on a variety of issues. Here鈥檚 one of many arguments you can get involved in.

黑洞社区鈥檚 virtual postbag was bulging last week, thanks to the new comment facility on the website. One story in particular prompted an email broadside. The debate was about whether the government should withdraw energy performance certificates from home information packs. As you can see, it provoked a strong reaction:

Ray Jones: 鈥淓nergy performance certificates (EPC) are a total waste and will only confirm the obvious 鈥� older houses are less efficient owing to their design and construction. The money would be better spent on grants to improve older housing stock.鈥�

Michael Duhig: 鈥淚f it was not for the government鈥檚 scaremongering, full home condition reports (HCR), rather than the watered down version, would have been introduced in June. Roll out HCRs to benefit housebuyers and sellers, not businesses.鈥�

David McCormick: 鈥淔urther to Ray Jones鈥� comment 鈥� shouldn鈥檛 older housing be replaced by efficient new homes?鈥�

Les Lees: 鈥淚n the past 10 years, 12 out of 30 houses on my street have been sold. I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 unreasonable to ask for EPCs to be updated every time a property is sold.鈥�

Michael Cake: 鈥淓xamine the backgrounds of the parties trying to derail the homebuying process change. A lot come from quangos and institutes whose chairs are all in finance and estate agency. They should have to declare their interest before commenting in public.鈥�

Hilary Nicholls: 鈥淭his looks like the last nail in the coffin of home info packs after dropping the HCR in June 2006. A good thing, too 鈥� packs will not resolve the uncertainties of buying and selling property. We have to adopt conditional contracts 鈥� problem solved without ridiculous legislation. Those conned into paying for training as inspectors should be compensated.鈥�

P McCormack: 鈥淓mploying a hairdresser who has been on a course is no substitute for an experienced chartered surveyor. I am glad they saw sense before it was too late.鈥�

Kevin Saunders: 鈥淥nce again, parties are considering their own issues rather than the wider one 鈥� global warming.鈥�

Ian Ross: 鈥淎t last, we purchasers can have a clear picture of what we鈥檙e buying. And why shouldn鈥檛 we?鈥�

Postscript

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