Launched to the market in full on 12 December, following an initial roll-out for three and four-bedroom properties, HIPs had been designed to speed up the home buying process.
However, a committee of MPs has questioned the impact of HIPs and the ‘lack of preparation’ by the Communities and Local Government department, and argued that the department had ‘lost its nerve’.
Despite the criticisms of the planning and implementation of HIPs detailed in the report, Trevor Kent, former president of National Association of Estate Agents, said the report would be scant consolation to estate agents, and the wider housing market.
He explained: “This report will be of no help to thousands of estate agents trying to make sense of the legislation in the face of disinterest and sometimes outright opposition from home buyers and sellers.
"When one remembers that this Committee had, in previous years, considered the whole concept of HIPs and advised the government to call a halt to the scheme at an early stage and were ignored, they are hardly likely to ruffle many feathers in the Housing Minister’s nest now.”
However, speaking to the BBC, Communities Minister, Iain Wright defended the government’s actions.
He said: “It was not possible to introduce HIPs in June because of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ legal action. We made a deliberate decision to phase the roll-out to ensure smooth implementation.”
