With HIPs set to launch on 1 June, a government report revealed that supplementary qualifications for the energy certificate would not be readily available until January 2007.
Speaking in Parliament, Yvette Cooper, Minister for Housing and Planning, said: “Overall estimates of the number of qualified individuals required to produce mandatory Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) and voluntary Home Condition Reports remain at between 2,500 and 4,500.
“Numbers of qualified home inspectors will be supplemented by those who choose to undertake the Domestic Energy Assessor qualification, which will allow them to produce the mandatory EPCs within the pack.
“This qualification is due to be launched during January and February, with three awarding bodies finalising their courses in order to allow candidates currently in training to qualify as soon as it is launched.”
Mike Pendergast, IFA at Zen Financial Services, admitted that the delay of the supplementary qualifications was a further blow to the success of the HIPs initiative.
He said: “It seems like it is one thing after another with HIPS. EPCs are good as an idea, but the idea behind HIPs was to speed up the home buying process, which doesn’t look likely to happen now. The original plan has been altered a lot.”
