The Government said yesterday that the packs would not be made mandatory next June, as local government leaders claimed that it would be im- possible to enforce the scheme.

House sellers will not now have to provide an expensive home condition report. They will only be required to provide an energy efficiency rating, searches and title deeds, at a cost of £150 next year.

The original scheme had been condemned by estate agents, chartered surveyors and mortgage lenders, who said that the cost of producing the home improvement packs (Hips) would deter sellers from putting their properties on the market. A Commons motion signed by more than 100 MPs also urged ministers to reconsider the scheme.

The Government admitted last week that private consultants had been called in to review the plan. The Opposition seized on the Government’s decision, claiming that its plans were now a complete shambles.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders had told ministers that many lenders would not be able to rely on home condition reports and that they would continue to seek separate mortgage valuation surveys from buyers. It said that the condition reports would not include information about subsidence, flood risk or land contamination, making them almost useless to a lender.

Yvette Cooper, the Housing Minister, admitted yesterday that part of the reason for scrapping the original plan was the failure to train enough home inspectors. Ministers had admitted that about 7,000 were needed, but so far only a few hundred have been trained.

Whitehall officials insisted that the Hips were being phased in rather than scrapped, and that a dry run would test other aspects of the scheme this year. But there is no date for further implementation and ministers said yesterday that, although sellers could provide a condition report, it would be voluntary, not mandatory.

Michael Gove, the Shadow Housing and Planning Minister, said: “The Government should abandon the whole scheme and consult afresh rather than move ahead with a vanity project to save ministers’ faces.”

However, Which?, the consumer group that had sup-ported the scheme in principal, said that it was disappointed by the government U-turn.

Nick Stace, its campaigns director, said: “The homebuyer was looking to the Government to hold firm in the face of criticism from the estate agents. Instead the Government has shown its house is made of straw.”

Join the debate

Click here to have your say on Hips