In an 18 page report the Building Society Association have produced a summary of the “thought leadership discussion” they hosted in April 2010. The Society represents all 50 of the UK building societies.
In the document the BSA sets out the key themes that were discussed and their recommendations for the industries involved and for government and encourages all professions to work together to improve the home buying process.
Adrian Coles, the Director General of the BSA identified three significant challenges. Firstly due to the different interests in the process it is challenging to produce a “cost effective and high quality” outcome “agreeable to all participants”.
Secondly the balance between the competing pressures from well established and traditional professions.
Finally, low levels of consumer awareness.
Attendees included Paul Marsh the past President of the Law Society, Mark McLaren of Which?, and David Newnes the Managing Director of Your Move. The mixture of attendees seemed to be a combination of a number of representative organisations like the Solicitors Sole Practitioners Group and commercial organisations like John Charcol.
A major theme from many contributors was that the home buying industry was incapable of reform without government intervention.
Bethany de Montjoie Rudolf for the Society of Licensed Conveyancers called for a coherent number of changes including improvements to e-conveyancing.
In conclusion the report sets out a number of recommendations including some goals for reform these being:-
– Better value for money for end users
– Well informed consumers
– Increased transparency
– Simpler process providing certainty and reducing delays.
The full report can be found at http://www.bsa.org.uk/docs/publications/home_buying_reform.pdf
What are your thoughts?
