BOSSES of a Hampshire based publisher of Home Information Packs (HIPs) are blaming the Government for its dramatic collapse into administration.

An eight week delay in introducing the Home Information Packs cost Segensworth based First Sellers Pack around £250,000 a week.

Ironically, it was on August 1, the day the packs were finally introduced, that the company succumbed to its losses and went into administration.

Question marks now hang over 40 jobs at the company's £5.1m Concorde Way base, as administrators look for a buyer.

FSP's financial headache was compounded by a change in the rules which saw the packs only mandatory for four-bedroom homes and above, instead of all properties.

That decision took out 80 per cent of FSP's market and ultimately led to an investors decision to call in administrators BDO Stoy Hayward.

HIPS were intended to make the home buying process faster and easier by presenting key information right at the start of the process. They were originally meant to be mandatory for all homes from June 1, before the Government backtracked.

Contracts FSP hoped to corner the HIPs market in the UK, with £61m worth of signed contracts under its belt. Turnover was forecast to grow from £500,000 to £25m by the end of the year and bosses ultimately aimed to print half of the housing market's HIPs.

Founder Jonathan Moore said he was hopeful of finding a buyer and attacked politicians for playing with people lives.

"I lay the blame at the door of the Government," he said. "It was Westminster that did all the running on HIPs, and, spotting an opportunity, we rightly built our business around the incoming legislation.

"The Government then pulled the rug from underneath our feet at the 11th hour, punching a hole through what our financial advisers described as the best business plan they had seen.

"The politicians have been playing with the livelihoods of decent, hardworking people, and the way the government has treated the industry is unforgivable.

"I am gutted, but you have to be strong in business, and I will do all in my power to make FSP the £500m publishing force that we have worked tirelessly to create over the past few years.

"The staff, who have been brilliant as ever despite all of this, are being kept on."

The company continues to trade while a buyer is sought.