The government has abandoned the Home Condition Reports, which
were due to be introduced next year for all house sales in
England and Wales.

There seem to be several reasons for this:
Cost of the HIPs (Home Information Packs) was looking like it
was going through the roof;
Nowhere near enough HI's (Home Inspectors) have been trained (I
know from talking with one of the training bodies that almost all
those who came forward for training were completely unsuitable);
Banks/Building Societies have told government they won't accept
the survey in the HIP;
There has been a significant public backlash against the scheme.

It should be noted that HIPs are not abandoned yet -- only the
survey element (Home Condition Report). However, strangely, the
SAP evaluation is still in, which is done by the Home Inspectors
during the Home Condition Report inspection. Quite how this is
supposed to work I can't imagine.

There are also a large number of HI who have funded their own
training who will now not be required -- I wonder what happens
about that.

Yet another cock-up from start to finish -- exactly as predicted
by everyone who gave the issue even the slightest thought at the
outset.

--
Andrew Gabriel