SINCE 1997 – against the advice of us estate agents and most property experts – the Government has been working on its master plan to improve house sales called the Home Information Pack (HIPs) and an introduction date of June 2007 was finally announced earlier this year.

This wad of documents for potential buyers, to be paid for by the seller before the property can go on the market, is to include legal stuff normally checked out by solicitors and was also to include a survey called a Home Condition Report incorporating an energy assessment.

The latest housing minister (the seventh since the original plan was conceived) has now announced that, as there won’t be enough home inspectors and the scheme is in danger of screwing up the property market, inclusion of the Home Condition Report would "not be mandatory".

In real terms this means that no-one will do it as which seller wants to provide a potential buyer with a list of their home’s faults, particularly if they have to pay for it?

This latest announcement has stunned estate agents and while it has delighted most, a whole allied industry of HIPs providers that has built up must be very nervous about investing any more time, money and careers in a project which is liable to change drastically without warning.

The minister has stated that home condition reports still "remain on the table", which sounds to me as if they will end up out of the door. But the attached Energy Performance Certificates (which will still need a survey) will be required as a "vital" part of the pack and will remain mandatory.

Uncertainties surrounding HIPs will aggravate the shortage of Home Inspectors and HIPs suppliers. As June, 2007 looms closer, and the threat of a disrupted property market hangs like a guillotine over Labour’s next term, the Government will yet again lose its bottle and be forced to scrap the whole thing.

* Ron Kennor is general manager of Robinson and Jackson Estate Agencies. He can be contacted on 020 8850 7788.