With ministers on Wednesday still locked in a stand-off with the housing industry over the home information packs U-turn, the pressure is on the government to explain how it got things so wrong – and where it goes from here.

Ministerial assurances that a legal challenge to the rules has been resolved were yesterday left open to question. Proposals to delay the introduction of Hips until August, and even then to restrict them to four-bedroom and bigger houses, could be the subject of a separate legal challenge, experts warned.