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Although it is a number of years time since I did much residential conveyancing, I recall that the problem with HIPS was (a) who put them together (agents) and (b) what had to be in them (ie local searches and other searches with a limited shelf life potentially involving the Seller in having to spend a fortune if their property did not sell quickly.
So a good start would be for there to be a conveyancing requirement for the solicitors to provide full title information and replies to enquiries, copies of searches which have a longer shelf life (ie more than 12 months) if there are any and perhaps copies of any searches or other information supplied within the last 10 years to give a buyer as much of a full picture as possible right from the outset.

Unless I am missing something, isn't a stream at the bottom of the garden something a Buyer should see when they first visit the Property? If the Buyer is not bothering to look at the Property before buying it - I wonder what kind of Buyers we are talking about here....

Also how much of the Government blaming solicitors (always an easy target) for the state of the housing market which may be more to do with economic environment, lack of job security, stupid SDLT rates etc.