Buyer packs branded 'waste of time'

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Research into the pilot phase of the packs, which aim to speed up the home-buying process and reduce the number of sales that fall through, found that they were only provided to four in 10 buyers.

A further 20% did not receive the documents from estate agents until after they had made an offer on a property.

Just 7% of people who took part in the trial said the packs had helped them to decide whether or not to buy a property, with 76% of people saying they had had no impact on their decision at all.

At the same time just 20% of buyers thought they had speeded up the property buying process and only 41% thought they had made it more efficient.

Among those who did see the packs some reported having to ask estate agents repeatedly to view them, while others said they were not allowed to take them off the estate agents' premises.

Housing Minister Caroline Flint insisted that a public awareness campaign has been launched since the trials last year, and estate agents had been reminded of their responsibility to hand out the packs.

She also stressed that the study, carried out by Ipsos MORI and covering 2,600 HIPs, indicated that 72% of sellers were satisfied with the information in the packs.

But less than half of buyers who saw a HIP thought it was a useful document, while 23% had difficulty understanding the packs, particularly the Energy Performance Certificates. On a brighter note, 75% of buyers said they trusted the information in the packs.

Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said: "These results reveal what we and the industry have known all along, HIPs are a complete waste of time."