The latest on home information packs (HIPs)

Celebrities have campaigned against it, estate agents have done their best to undermine it and many house sellers are annoyed by the cost. But from today the object of such division and loathing, the Home Information Pack, becomes compulsory in all its brick-and-mortar glory.

Now, all property for sale must come with a HIP prepared for it in advance whereas before this could take place as soon as a pack had been ordered.

HIPs which cost between £300 and £500 to complete require vendors to prepare a raft of information for potential buyers including a property information questionnaire, an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) or Predicted Energy Assessment (PEA), sustainability information (for new homes), a sale statement, plus evidence of title and standard searches (local authority and drainage and water).

But the governments efforts to launch a fully-fledged HIP system have almost been thwarted by a coordinated campaign of opposition. For example, Location, Location, Location TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp (pictured) has been a vocal opponent, stating recently that: "An Englishman's home may once have been his castle, but under Labour you have to get the state's permission and pay a state- sponsored inspector, before a prospective buyer can cross the threshold.

"Hopes and dreams are tied up in bricks and mortar. Yet the Government, in their inability to admit they are wrong, appear determined to play politics with property."

And many estate agents dislike the packs too. The industry body the National Association of Estate Agents says 89 per cent of agents whom it questioned did not think HIPs would benefit buyers.

More embarrassingly for the government, its own research shows that 77 per cent of us pay no attention to the packs when deciding whether to buy a property.

Also, experts say that making offers more binding in order to prevent gazumping and gazundering would be a more sensible way to reform the highly volatile property buying and selling process in England and Wales, rather than the bureaucratic and expensive option the government has opted for.

But Housing Minister Margaret Beckett says: We think it is right that consumers are well informed about the home they are looking to buy, and HIPs are an important aid to potential buyers when making one of the biggest financial decisions of their life.

The most criticism of HIPs comes not from agents or consumer groups, though, but rather from the very industry that should be supporting them. Ashley King, chairman of the National Association of Home Pack Providers, recently said in an interview that: "I've made no secret of the fact that I think HIPs were implemented in the most awful fashion by the Labour Government; I've been beating the drum about this for some time. HIPs have not been as effective as they should have been because of this."

Lifestyle can provide a fully compliant HIP quickly & simply for £199.00 including VAT