Government U-turn on House sale packs.

The Government have yet again shown that they cannot even make their own policy's work. Yesterday, Housing Minsiter Yvette Cooper announced that the introduction of the Home Information Pack (HIPs) would not be introduced in June 2007, as had previously been planned.

The Housing Minister stated that the survey element required "more testing" before being included in the HIPs. There are also concerns there will not be enough inspectors to cope with demands for Home Condition Reports.

To add further insult to injury the Council of Mortgage Lenders say some lenders may not be "fully geared up" to use Home Condition Reports until 2008-9, meaning they would continue to seek separate mortgage valuation surveys.

This just goes to prove that the Government plans, to quote Shawdow Housing Minister Michael Gove, "are a complete shambles".

So basically, to save face, the Government are going to go ahead with the introduction of these packs next year, even though they will be incomplete.

Why is it that the Government cannot take the hint from their testing, that these packs don't work, and are grossly over-priced. The Government should take the opportunity to take a step back, and completely re-think this policy, so the we dont' end up with another half-baked measure.