Borrowers confused over whether or to opt for a fixed-rate or variable rate deal should spare a thought for the continuing uncertainty surrounding the forthcoming introduction of Home information packs (Hips).

Yesterday the Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP) called on the government to set a date for the packs to be introduced for properties with three bedrooms or more, but the House of Lords followed that up with a call for Hips to be scrapped entirely.

Peers voted by 186 to 160 in favour of abandoning the packs, a move that was welcomed by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) but derided by the AHIPP.

"Even at this late stage, with the phased introduction of Hips due to start on August 1st, we yet again call on the government to proceed with the energy performance certificate – which we are in full support of – and to scrap the remainder of this ill-thought out pack," NAEA chief executive Peter Bolton King commented.

But Mike Ockenden, AHIPP director general, said that the Conservatives were simply attempting to make "a political football" out of the packs and asserted that government resolve had not been shaken.