Estate agents and environmentalists round on Kelly as Hips scheme is thrown into confusion

Estate agents and environmentalists round on Kelly as Hips scheme is thrown into confusion

Housing industry groups and green campaigners warned that the new proposals announced by Ruth Kelly, the communities and local government secretary, would probably make matters worse.

The scheme - originally designed to cut the number of house deals which fall through and promote energy efficiency - will now be pushed back two months. As of August 1 sellers of four-bedroomed properties will be required to provide potential buyers with a Hip, including the document assessing the property's energy efficiency, the Energy Performance Certificate. Hips for smaller properties will be required from a later date.

But the National Association of Estate Agents warned that the announcement will merely lead to a rush of home-owners putting their properties up for sale before the deadline, skewing the market. The decision to focus Hips on four-bedroomed properties in the first instance will also cause problems. "I have just heard one man saying that the four-bedroomed property he is selling has suddenly become a three-bedroomed property with a study. There is scope for all sorts of abuse," said Charles Smailes, the association president. "I am glad I am not the director of fair trading."

Mr Smailes said he is relieved that the government has finally listened.....continued below

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The new arrangements also prompted one senior figure to hit out at what he called "staggering ministerial incompetence".

Robert Bryant-Pearson, chief executive of Allied Surveyors, said: "Judging from past experience, Yvette Cooper and Ruth Kelly are both too churlish to resign gracefully and, having destroyed their credibility, will merely wait to be sacked."

He said the earlier decision to strip Home Inspection Reports from the Hips package had already damaged the initiative. "In July 2006, I witnessed personal tragedy when people who had given up other lines of work to train to be home inspectors had their expected new career snatched away from them.

"We now have a situation where individuals have made similar sacrifices with a view to seeing their way clear to a new income from June 1 only to discover with only a week to go that their livelihoods are thrown in to confusion."

Ms Kelly said that there were only 520 fully trained and accredited energy assessors, 1,500 short of the number needed.

Paul Broadhead, deputy director general of the Association of Home Information Providers called on all sides to find a compromise and said ministers must get a grip if the policy is to be successful. "People are starting to lose confidence in what the government tells them," he said.

There were also harsh words from the Law Society which called the plans "fundamentally flawed" and the Council of Mortgage Lenders, whose director general Michael Coogan said: "Today's hasty announcement marks the latest in a series of climbdowns and opportunistic amendments. This cannot be an appropriate way to make policy."