The government has denied new claims that home information packs are reducing the number of properties on the market.

The Department for Communities and Local Government rejected suggestions that the packs (Hips) had led to the slowdown in supply and insisted that they were helping homebuyers.

The row came after the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said on Friday that there had been a fall in the number homes put on the market because of the deterrent of producing a pack.

Hips, designed to provide transparent information to buyers, came into force for homes with four or more bedrooms in August 1 and three-bedroom properties in September.

But Rics warned that extending the use of the packs to one and two-bedroom homes could further limit supply and push prices up.

"With prospective buyers and sellers currently taking a 'wait and see' approach to moving, activity in the housing market is grinding to a halt," spokesman Jeremy Leaf said.

"The housing minister needs to understand that rolling Hips out to one and two-bed properties could find first-time-buyers caught between a rock and a hard place as accessibility to the market would go off the scale."

Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said: "It's now quite clear that the bureaucratic red tape that surrounds Hips is starting to strangle housing market supply.

"The number of properties being put up for sale is down across the country and if the government insist on rolling this flawed scheme out to one and two-bed homes, then things can only get worse."

However a spokesman for the Whitehall department insisted that serious commentators "recognise that it is wider issues such as interest rates and other economic factors that impact on the housing market".

"New listings have fallen right across the market in October and interest from buyers and sellers of all properties is currently being affected by wider market conditions," he added.

"Hips are providing more early information into the market for consumers - that is a good thing. Already, consumers are seeing lower search costs as a result of the transparency in the market Hips is bringing and for the first time getting real information about the likely running costs of a future home."