The controversial Home Information Packs (HIPs) scheme has caused a rush of new properties coming onto the market, according to a report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors out today.

The number of new properties coming onto on the market increased at the fastest pace in the survey’s history. Surveyors reported that this hike was caused by sellers rushing to put their property onto the market before the introduction of the now delayed Home Information Packs (HIPs) in order to avoid fees associated with the packs.

RICS spokesman, Jeremy Leaf, said: “Conditions in the market have loosened as sellers sought to avoid the upfront costs of the recently delayed HIP. However, the surge in supply will be short lived.”

The government has faced calls to abandon or delay the introduction of the packs, the most important element of which is an energy performance certificate that will rank homes from A to G, depending on how well they generate and conserve energy.

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Last month, only days before HIPs were to become compulsory, the Government announced that the introduction of the scheme would be delayed from June 1 to August 1 and restricted to four-bedroom houses.

Plans to include a compulsory, more comprehensive Home Condition Report (HCR) were scrapped last year after complaints that buyers would not trust it and mortgage lenders would not take it into account.

Earlier this week Ruth Kelly met representatives of the Home Information Pack industry, which warned the Communities Secretary that she faces a multi-billion claim if she scraps the scheme.

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