SELLERS' PACKS_Government-appointed consultants 'had conflict of

The home information pack (HIP) was dealt another blow after a damning report from the public-spending watchdog concluded that the Government had used consultants "with a clear conflict of interest" to develop the scheme.

The National Audit Office (NAO) last week found that the Department for Communities and Local Government had employed outside consultants who had a financial interest in one of the companies involved in the scheme to make sellers responsible for compiling details of their property for potential buyers.

"Ministers should have done more than [simply] take assurances from the consultants themselves that a conflict did not exist," said the authors of the report, which was instigated by a complaint from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

The complaint focused on consultants Christopher Legrand and Richard Theobald, who were hired in 2000 to develop HIP policy. Although they had sold their shares in their former employer, Surveyors and Valuers Accreditation (SAVA), they retained a shareholding interest in SAVA's parent company.

An investigation into the appointment by accountants hired by the RICS later prompted the NAO report.

All homes with four or more bedrooms must be sold with HIPs, which cost up to [pound]500.

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