I THANK Paul Gawn (Letters, January 6) for responding to my letter regarding the introduction of home information packs in June. He is obviously biased, having spent a lot of his time and money on becoming an inspector. With his experience of being a builder, he would seem to be an obvious choice to know a lot about housing with 25 years involvement in the industry.

Mr Gawn refers to the dry run of the scheme, which has its own problems and will give no clue if the public will accept them or not, as the dry run packs are free. After June 1 they are expected to cost several hundred pounds.

He also suggests that the National Association of Estate Agents, the Law Society, Council of Mortgage Leaders and chartered surveyors are supportive of the packs. Not according to the professional publications I receive!

I ask Mr Gawn the following questions: Who will ensure that the Stamp Duty is paid by most purchasers?

Will you forward the VAT?

Who will discharge the mortgage on a property to be sold and any other charges?

Who will deal with probate and pay out the settlement to beneficiaries?

Who will inform the Land Registry of the transaction?

Who is going to settle the estate agent's commission?

The answer is, of course, a solicitor or conveyancer.

The pack will not save time or money as those firms will still charge probably their usual fees, not a reduction.

Any sale and purchase will go through as quickly as people can proceed.

All that the pack will have is a draft contract, searches which have a limited shelf life, a survey is pointless in most cases as the purchaser will want their own carried out, certainly any lender will insist on one.

Home condition report is now only optional and I would imagine most sellers will not pay for it.

With only Labour supporting the pack, and I strongly suspect they will lose the next general election, Mr Gawn's job looks rather short lived.

My view is that the pack will be delayed yet again. If not, they will be scrapped within 12 months as the property market will slow down and perhaps go into recession because people will not accept yet another stealth tax.

Whereas at the moment agents usually work on the basis of no sale, no fee.

RICHARD F GRANT, Burley.