20 May 2010 .  In an important step at a point of fragile recovery in the housing market, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Housing Minister Grant Shapps today announced that with immediate effect, they are suspending the requirement for homeowners to provide a Home Information Pack (HIP) when selling their homes.

Mr Pickles today laid an Order suspending HIPs with immediate effect, pending primary legislation for a permanent abolition. The Secretary of State has taken this swift action in order to avoid uncertainty and prevent a slump in an already fragile housing market. Today's announcement sends a clear message of encouragement to people thinking of selling their home that they can put it on the market with less cost and hassle.

HIPs are currently holding back the housing market because sellers are having to fork-out extra cash, sometimes hundreds of pounds, just to be able to put their home up for sale. Suspending HIPs will reduce the cost of selling a home, remove a layer of regulation from the process and provide a welcome help to the housing market during the recovery. It will also mean a saving for consumers to the tune of £870m over ten years, giving sellers more money in their pocket to spend in the wider economy.

Mr Pickles and Mr Shapps also said that the Government is determined to help people reduce their energy bills, improve our energy security and tackle climate change by increasing the energy efficiency of their homes. Sellers will therefore still be required to commission, but won't need to have received, an EPC before marketing their property, and the Government will consider how the EPC can play its part in the new drive for a low carbon and eco-friendly economy.

February 2010.  For some time we have been looking for an additional member to join our team. There was only one specific requirement, they simply need to eat, sleep and live photography. We have now found that individual and welcome Mark Hardy to the company. We think we may be the only Oxfordshire agent to have a professional photographer employed full time. Mark has a BA (honours) in photography and continues to run his own company at the weekends where he is in high demand for weddings etc. The quality of photography now available to all of our clients is simply the finest available, just take a look at the images on the website and see for yourself.

Mark visits all clients to discuss the best possible way to present their homes and then spends as long as necessary to ensure the pictures he takes give a true representation of the property. He then uses the latest photo-editing software to ensure the colour balance and other aspects of each image are perfect. Only then does he forward them to us for inclusion in our sales brochures, newspaper advertising, web advertising and window cards. No other agent goes to these sorts of lengths to ensure their clients properties are presented to this standard and therefore achieve the best possible price.