The Government's climbdown on home information packs is a very last minute and long overdue acknowledgement that this scheme, first mooted as far back as 1997, could not be effectively implemented as planned on June 1.

This major setback in the introduction of a flagship reform - intended to speed up the buying and selling of properties, limit gazumping and encourage environmental awareness among homeowners - represents yet another housing policy debacle.

Remember that there has already been one U-turn on the rocky road to making all sellers provide a Hip to prospective purchasers. In July last year, ministers were compelled to make the apparently all-important home condition report (HCR) element of the Hip voluntary - there were insufficient numbers of trained inspectors able to carry out the work.

Other housing policy fiascos include the Sipp episode. Savers were promised that they would enjoy the opportunity to hold residential property in self-invested-personal pensions (Sipps) as a way of supplementing their retirement provision. But this concession was abruptly withdrawn in December 2005. Ministers had not fully-thought out the consequences of the plan, but chose instead to accuse anyone who wished to take advantage of the plan of conspiring to avoid tax.

Related Internet Links

• Home Information Packs: news, analysis and advice

The silencing of our Mr Spocks

Our public administration has specialised in low-level, chronic inefficiency with a counterpoint of big talk

Background

• Hips

• Comment: Hips humble pie is long overdue

• This is painful. We need a HIP replacement

• A glimmer of sense amid the Hips fiasco

Background

• Pack of troubles?

• Home Information Packs (HIPs) - Q&A

• Legal challenge to Home Information Packs

Hips will make us greener, or so the Government says

• Hips have already won hearts and minds and will make us all greener, or so the Government says

Background

• Home Information Packs come under fire

• Q&A: home information packs

• Will HIPs pack a real punch?

• Home Information Packs branded as 'ridiculous'

Related Links

• Government climbs down on faulty HIPs

• Pack of troubles?

Ruth Kelly, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, may see delaying the introduction of Hips as a face-saving measure. But it merely raises the question as to why her Department continued for so long to turn a deaf ear to anyone voicing concern about flaws in the plan.

The Department continued to insist until Friday that there were enough fully trained - and accredited - inspectors to complete the energy performance certificates (EPCs) which will grade a property's energy efficiency. Anyone raising doubts was accused of a lack of commitment to the green cause; one critic felt that he had been denounced as a "green terrorist" for his valid objections.

In the House of Commons this afternoon, Ms Kelly admitted to the shortfall in the numbers of fully trained inspectors, saying that this was the reason why Hips would only apply to houses with more than four bedrooms when the scheme finally started to become compulsory on August 1. These properties offer the greatest scope for energy saving, according to the minister.

But even those who saw EPCs as a way to start making the British more environmentally aware could not see this as anything but a very weak excuse for incompetence.

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