The Conveyancing Task Force (CTF) has urged UK Finance and its members to take a more active, and accountable role in delivering the government’s home buying and selling reforms.
The groups warns that digitalisation alone will not resolve the “systemic” delays that continue to frustrate consumers and professionals alike. While lenders have been vocal in recent months about the need for digital transformation, the task force cautions that technology cannot compensate for structural issues that originate within lending policy itself.
The CTF says that lenders continue to operate with a conflicted stance, both calling for speed and efficiency whilst maintaining rigid expectations of title perfection and often refusing “proportionate” views on minor or historic defects that their own borrowers are willing to accept.
The task force also identifies LMS‑driven queries, repetitive information requests, and ambiguous or contradictory Part 2 instructions as significant sources of “friction”, particularly in relation to rent charges, new builds, and the Building Safety Act.
They emphasise that “meaningful” reform requires more than new platforms or portals, saying that clear codes of practice, technical memorandums, and binding commitments between government, UK Finance, and lenders that “go beyond restating existing expectations” are needed.
Stephen Larcombe, spokesperson for the CTF, said:
“These frameworks must require lenders to adopt proportionate, risk‑based decision making that reflects how property is actually bought and sold in the real world.
“Digitalisation will help but only if the underlying behaviours and policies that generate delay are addressed.
“A modern system cannot be built on outdated assumptions about risk, nor on inconsistent or contradictory instructions that leave conveyancers second‑guessing lender requirements.”
The task force also stresses that enforceable standards, combined with a willingness to apply them, are essential if the sector is to achieve the “consistency, clarity and accountability” that consumers have been promised for years. Without this, digital tools risk becoming a veneer over unresolved structural problems, they say.
Larcombe also warned against selective modernisation, saying:
“Lenders cannot modernise only the parts of the system that suit them.
“They must also accept their share of responsibility for the current state of affairs. A more efficient, trusted home buying and selling ecosystem will only emerge when every part of it, including lenders, acknowledges its role and chooses to do better.”
The task force reaffirmed its commitment to working collaboratively with government, UK Finance and industry bodies to ensure that reforms are not only ambitious but “deliverable, proportionate and grounded” in the realities of practice.
The CTF consists of 23 members, 21 of whom are practising conveyancers. They represent a wide spectrum of organisations, from small law firms to a PLC.
Members include Zahrah Aullybocus, a property partner at Nexa who has given evidence to the House of Lords, and Liz Ramsden, a residential property partner at Knights who specialises in the Building Safety Act 2022.
