Local Authorities (England) (Charges for Property Searches) Regulations 2008

I understand it is temporary but I look forward to seeing her again. The important point raised by the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, has to be considered seriously because, clearly, everything that we are doing in housing at the moment is conditioned through the prism of what is happening in the housing market. Whatever we do, we have to be careful that it will add to people’s capacity and ability to buy and sell houses. Whether they are lenders, buyers or estate agents—the whole industry—we do not want to put any accidental or deliberate obstacles in the way of the process. The fact that the OFT has committed to looking at the process as a whole is a welcome step forward. We are working closely with all the stakeholders in this field, including the consumer bodies, Which?, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and so on. The noble Lord’s final argument was that the discipline of a falling market means that people are going to be careful about how they do things, including how they charge. The regulations give us far greater transparency on the costs—how they are incurred, what is being charged and value for money. People will not be fobbed off by a private search company telling them that they cannot get hold of the information, because now they will be able to do so. Competition is now built in and the cost of searches has been dropping. That should hold steady because, for the first time, we have a genuinely competitive situation.