AHIPP Cashflow 'extremely tight'

1. Upfront payments are a crazy idea in an industry that has got a mere 16 months or so (max) until the next election and the Tories are still committed to killing HIPs stone dead. Yes a compromise might be reached, but every business should think carefully before apportioning funds to a political risk of ending the HIP industry that is not under any HIP companies control

2. Sad to see 2 of the 3 big hitters at AHIPP go, it means Mike will be very busy now and is there some chance that he may be spread too thin?

3. HIP Code costs to rise, linking in the AHIPP news above surely it must happen, its the badge that people are prepared to pay for, despite the evidence that it doesn't necessarily deliver against the expectations people may have of it (auditing for example).

4. AHIPP can raise funds in other ways, providing research, acting as an introducer to other services and so on, but this hasn't yet been exploited. The best example of where AHIPP could have built a residual income was the offering of deferred payment to members. The Executive members, presumably realising it was a risk to their own thrones, decided that the proposal to allow Affiliate and Associate AHIPP members access to the deferred payment option through an AHIPP-specific portal and canned this option. If AHIPP had even been able to earn £5 per HIP put through, it would have provided a good residual income based on the volumes people would have put through, plus it would have acted as an incentive to retain existing members.

5. As AHIPP members buy each other, go out of business or consildate their position, I would predict a fall in membership, perhaps of around 20% by Sept 09- Its good that you have provided a membership tally right now, lets see where it all heads as this tough year rolls on.

We can only watch with baited breathe as to how the industry will continue to struggle with the continuing reduction in fees as well as the introduction of Property Information Questionaires shortly- they alone are going to provide many pack providers with some short-term pain in adjusting their processes, educating the agents and the public and increasing their overheads since the provision and compilation of the PIQ is simply not something that can be shoe-horned in zero cost.