Strutt & Parker has given a qualified welcome to the announcement by Community Secretary Ruth Kelly that the introduction of Home Information Packs (HIPs) will be delayed until 1 August. But Anthony Cane, Senior Partner of National property specialists Strutt & Parker, states that the HIP legislation is fundamentally flawed.

‘It is absolutely right to delay the introduction of HIPs,’ he says. ‘Implementing them on 1 June, as originally planned, would have had seriously adverse effects on the housing market.

“Whilst we have always welcomed the core intention of HIPs – to speed up the selling process, we struggle with the latest train of events.

‘The latest plans are unworkable and will add more bureaucracy; who is going to police whether a house really does have four bedrooms as opposed to, say, three bedrooms and an office?

‘The aims of this law will not be achieved. One of the main justifications for HIPs was that they would speed up the buying process - the availability of an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) will never influence the speed of a transaction!

Another main objective was that the provision of the HIP, at the cost of the seller, would reduce costs for first-time buyers - very few first time buyers buy four-bedroom houses even that benefit has gone!

‘As a firm we have tried to embrace the legislation. Now the great deal of money and resources spent doing so has been wasted. So, too, has the significant investment made by those training to be Energy Performance Certification officers who now find that their qualification obsolete – just like those who trained as HCR inspectors last year, only to find themselves without a job.

‘It seems as though the Government is formulating this policy and legislation on the hoof, making it up as it goes along.

Cane concludes that the message to government is “please stop and listen, we are not driven by a wish to be obstructive – it suits us to speed up the selling process but linking EPC’s with HIP’s is not the way forward”.