The Government has announced new measures to increase the effectiveness of Home Information Packs (HIPs) for both buyers and sellers during the home buying process.

The new measures include: developing a set of industry standards for property professionals to adhere to; improvements to the quality of information contained within HIPs; working with property professions to help customers gain the most benefit from HIPs; extending ‘first day marketing’, the allowance for sellers to market their property as long as they have committed to and paid for a HIP, until the end of the year and the requirement for the lease to be included in the HIP for all leasehold properties.

Paul Broadhead, deputy director general of The Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPPs), told PIN: “The implementation of HIPs is going well and the packs are making a difference with home sales going through 12 days quicker. There is still much more work to be done as the packs need to be more consumer friendly.”

When asked whether the new measures announced by the Government would do this he said: “The intention is there and it will be good to work with the industry”, although he did feel that the Government had “missed an opportunity by not including the Home Condition Report, because the most important thing for the consumer is the condition of the house and whether it is still going to be standing in six months”.

Peter Bolton King, chief executive of NAEA, welcomes the Government’s objective. He said: “We have always maintained that in their present state, they are of little use to either seller or buyer and therefore we embrace the opportunity to come up with a package that includes real benefits to the customer and will actually assist the buying and selling process - after all, that was the original intention of this legislation. If this cannot be achieved we continue to maintain that HIPs should be scrapped.”