Tory call to scrap 'expensive and slow' home packs

Some of the packs are costing more than £500 and more than half are over the target price of £350.

And only one in eight is being produced within the predicted time of four to five working days. Fifty-two per cent are taking 12 days, the report claims, while 31 per cent are taking longer than 15 working days.

Today the Conservatives will use a debate on the Housing and Regeneration Bill in the Commons to force a vote on abandoning HIPs altogether.

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The packs were introduced by the Government with claims they would provide key information to home buyers and so speed up purchases.

They were opposed by estate agents, the legal profession and the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Sellers must pay for a HIP, which includes a 'green' rating requiring a visit and survey by a domestic energy assessor. It also includes council searches and proof of ownership.

More than 370,000 packs have been prepared since last summer.

The National Association of Estate Agents' research found most of its members believe the packs have not speeded up the selling process, nor given buyers useful information.

The delays in receiving HIPs will increase pressure on ministers to backtrack on making sellers have a pack ready before they can even put a home on the market. At present a pack must only have been commissioned before putting a home up for sale, but this will end on May 31.

Earlier this month consumer watchdogs said HIPs had been introduced in the 'worst piece of consumer legislation in 50 years'.

Tory housing spokesman Grant Shapps said: 'Everyone involved, be it experts or consumers, recognises that HIPs have failed in every aspect.'

A spokesman for the Communities and Local Government Department said: 'The average cost of a HIP is between £300 and £350 which, apart from the energy performance certificate, is already part of the buying and selling process.

'The most authoritative analysis of HIPs found 72 per cent of consumers were satisfied with them.'

Only 4 per cent of newlybuilt flats sold at auction over the last three years made a profit, according to new figures.

Auctioneers Allsop, which said such sales were often repossessions, found the value of the average new flat dropped 26 per cent when it went under the hammer.

The report is a major worry for buy-to-let investors who are seeing the value of their portfolios plunge. Allsop blamed the problems on an over-supply of flats.