WITH less than two months until the introduction of mandatory Home Information Packs (HIPs), scaremongering from anti-HIP organisations has been slammed by a leading supplier of domestic energy assessors.

Stephen Callaghan, a director of energy-assessors.com, said: "The amount of misinformation put about by organisations who are against the introduction of HIPs has sunk to new levels with the insistence that there will be a shortage of domestic energy assessors for energy performance certificates (EPC) from June 1."

Mr Callaghan added: "It is time the public were given the facts about the industry's preparation for June 1, when it becomes law for every property sold in the UK to have a HIP containing an EPC rating the home's energy efficiency."

He said the Government has confirmed there are about 3,000 domestic energy assessors in training. The estimate is that 2,500 to 3,000 assessors will be needed to produce about 90,000 EPCs in the launch month.

Mr Callaghan's company will have at least 870 fully trained assessors ready for the new legislation, which, he says, is enough to service almost one third of the market's requirements in June alone. Another 400 will qualify by the end of the summer.

Paul Broadhead, deputy director of the Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP), said anti-HIP activity was causing unnecessary panic across the housing market.

He said there were already 1,000 trained domestic energy assessors and another 2,200 will have completed their training and be qualified by June.

He added that HIPs will cost on average £300 to £500 for the mandatory pack, and that rather than having a negative effect on the housing market, the new legislation will reduce the number of transactions that fall through and so save consumers time and money.

Mr Broadhead said: "A number of agents have recently launched campaigns urging consumers to put their home on the market early in an attempt to avoid the need for a HIP.

"If consumers feel the need to rush to market their homes in an attempt to avoid a HIP, this may cause a slight distortion in the market during the early summer months. However, July and August are traditionally quieter periods and, over the year as a whole, this will have no impact at all."