The Government needs to step in to mandate reforms that promise to revolutionise the home buying and selling process was the key message delivered at a recent round-table for the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.

Speakers at the annual stakeholder event also highlighted recruitment issues in the conveyancing market, after the huge surge of work during the post-lockdown Stamp Duty holiday drove burnt-out lawyers to leave their jobs.

ORDER

Beth Rudolf, director of delivery at the Conveyancing Association, said the Government needed to step in to bring order to the many initiatives around to speed up the home-buying process.

The Home Buying and Selling Group, which represents all the players in the market and advises the Government, has been trying to deliver it voluntarily but forthcoming research “makes it very clear that the barriers to uptake will prevent it from happening unless it is mandated”.

Nicky Heathcote, chair of both Propertymark and the Conveyancing Association, said the group “has done as much as we possibly can now. We have given the answers, we have got everybody else on board. It now needs government to take the lead”.

Mark Montgomery, chief strategy officer at Simplify Group, agreed and told the meeting: “The adoption point is the challenging one. If the government were to set out a clear vision and say, ‘In three years’ time, this is how we are all going to be working,’ it would create a glide path.”

Other issues covered by the roundtable included fees, lender expectations, upfront information, digitisation and data standards.

REFORM

Stephen Ward, director of strategy and external relations at CLC says: “The undeniable message from the roundtable is that significant reform is coming to the property market. There are lots of initiatives and innovations out there that need to be brought together coherently. Once that is done, change could happen quickly.”