Blanchard Consultancy – the independent construction consultant

Around 30 per cent of transactions fall through between offer and exchange, so the current system seems flawed. The lack of information available up front and the delays between offer and exchange are seen as key problems that might be solved by HIPs.

Last week, the Government published its draft regulations for the HIPs, which it claims will cut the overall cost of buying and selling a home. HIPs were introduced in the Housing Act 2004, which became law on November 18 last year. They are the outcome of research across a range of housing markets in Europe. The result confirmed that England and Wales has one of the slowest systems in Europe.

Seller's packs unravelled:
What's in the pack?
Terms of sale
Evidence of title
Copy of lease
Details of service charges
Results of searches
Planning consents on the property
Building control certificates
Seller's information form
Warranties and guarantees
A home condition report

more: Government plans for a seller's pack could damage an already fragile market, TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp tells Caroline McGhie on Telegraph online

Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Nuclear energy development is supported by as much as 62 percent of the U.K. population as long as it's part of a government policy also expanding renewable power sources such as wind and solar, a Deloitte & Touche LLP survey showed.

Support for the expansion of nuclear power alone falls to 36 percent of the U.K. public, Deloitte & Touche wrote today in an e- mailed report. Some 23 percent of the population expects the majority of British electricity to be nuclear generated in 15 years time, the study showed.

``Support for nuclear increases significantly when there is some reassurance that it would not be in place of renewable sources'' including wind, solar, wave and biomass-generated power, the report said. ``The U.K.'s future energy policy is likely to combine a diverse range of power generation sources. This doesn't seem to be widely understood at present.''

Prime Minister Tony Blair this week signaled his support for building a new generation of nuclear plants as energy demand increases and as the country seeks to reduce pollution from coal-, oil- and natural gas-fired stations. Renewable sources can fill some, though not all of the shortfall, Blair said.

Unlike fossil fuel-fired plants, nuclear reactors produce virtually no emissions of carbon dioxide, the gas responsible for global warming, according to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Aging nuclear and coal-fired stations that generate about a third of Britain's power will be closed by 2020.

`False Expectations'

A decision on whether to build a new generation of nuclear plants will be taken by mid-2006, U.K. Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said Nov. 29. Nuclear plants, such as British Energy Plc's Sizewell plant, today produce about 20 percent of Britain's power.

About 35 percent of the British population expects renewable sources will generate the majority of the country's electricity in 15 year's time, the survey reported.

``There is confusion and false expectation among the public in relation to future energy generation,'' the report said. ``The expectation for renewables is clearly unrealistic -- 15 years from now renewables might comprise up to 15 percent of the U.K. energy mix'' from about 4 percent today, the report said.

Some 18 percent of the population said fossil fuels would generate most of Britain's power in 15 years, the report said.

Blair's support for new nuclear stations puts him on collision course with environmentalists, such as Greenpeace, who say nuclear power is unsafe, citing accidents such as the explosion at Chernobyl in 1986.

The online survey of 2,041 British adults was conducted between Nov. 15 and Nov. 17 by YouGov Plc, the report said.