Home Information Packs (HIPs) have been scrapped by the new Government meaning home owners looking to sell their property will no longer be obliged to have them.

They were initially introduced to speed up the selling process by providing certain information about the property to potential buyers however, they were seen as expensive and unnecessary by many in the property industry.

Eric Pickles, communities secretary, said: "The expensive and unnecessary home information pack has increased the cost and hassle of selling homes and is stifling a fragile housing market. That is why I am taking emergency action to suspend the HIP, bringing down the cost of selling a home and removing unnecessary regulation from the home buying process. This action will encourage sellers back into the market, and help the market as a whole and the economy recover."

Housing experts have welcomed the decision believing it will help home owners and the housing market. However, energy performance certificates – which show how energy efficient a property is – will be retained.

Gillian Charlesworth, RICS’ director of communications, said: "HIPs have failed to address the significant problems in the home buying process they were originally supposed to tackle and RICS is pleased that one of the first acts of the new Government has been to clearly show their intention to abolish them. Taking a swift decision will have minimised the impact on the market and ensured that estate agents who stick to the rules will not lose out.

"The Government must now use this opportunity to move on positive discussions about improving the home buying process working closely with the industry and professional bodies that have already done a lot of work on this issue. There is now the opportunity to start again with a clean slate and come up with innovative proposals to reform the system.
"Rather than seeing the announcement as the death of HIPs it should become the start of a new process that brings real change to people’s experience of buying a home."