After much hulabaloo the Government’s Home Information Packs (HIPS) were finally branded a complete waste of time yesterday by the Communities Department. What a surprise!

Research undertaken by the Department into the Government’s pilot scheme found that the packs which were introduced to speed up house sales were only being provided to four in ten buyers. A further 20% did not receive them from estate agents until after they had made an offer on the property and in total 80% of buyers never saw them at all. Grant Shapps, the Tory housing spokesman said: ” It is proving to be a very costly and bureaucratic farce”.

It also emerged yesterday that in spite of the Government spending £100m on a scheme to help first time buyers onto the property ladder only 700 people had actually received helped since the programme began nearly 2 years ago.

Research also showed that while 115 first time buyers in the South East had received help and 117 in London, the scheme had only assisted 4 people in the east of England and not helped a single first time buyer in the East Midlands.

How does this compare with the non- Government scheme for first time buyers run by Joint Equity Ltd? The answer is it doesn’t. I know for a fact that 12 people in the East Midlands were helped by Joint Equity in the space of two months, not two years!

The answer for first time buyers is plainly don’t wait for the Government to help you, contact Joint Equity Ltd now.