Ambition and delivery are not the same thing.
In Britain, the long-troubled process of buying and selling homes stands at the edge of significant reform, with the government signalling its intent to cut through decades of delay and opacity. Mark Evans, president of the Law Society, greets this ambition with measured welcome — not because the goal is wrong, but because the distance between a worthy vision and a working system is where most reforms quietly fail. His counsel is ancient in its wisdom: the whole must be considered before any single part is moved, and those who live closest to the problem must be heard before the solution is declared.
- Britain's home-buying process has long been a source of frustration — slow, opaque, and riddled with coordination failures that leave buyers and sellers stranded for months.
- The government's reform announcement has raised hopes, but also anxieties: a system this interconnected can be made worse by well-intentioned changes applied without full understanding of its dependencies.
- The Law Society is pushing back — not against reform itself, but against the risk of a rushed, piecemeal rollout that consults conveyancers too late and pilots too little before going wide.
- Estate agent regulation emerges as a specific fault line: solicitors face rigorous professional standards while agents remain largely ungoverned, creating an uneven playing field in the most consequential transaction of most people's lives.
- Technology investment is welcomed but treated with scepticism — digital tools can only accelerate a process that is fundamentally sound; they cannot substitute for the data quality, institutional cooperation, and regulatory clarity that reform must first establish.
Mark Evans, president of the Law Society, finds himself in a familiar position for anyone who has spent a career in law: welcoming the right ambition while insisting that ambition alone is not enough. The government has announced plans to overhaul how homes are bought and sold in Britain — to reduce delays, improve transparency, and cut through the bureaucratic complexity that has long made conveyancing a source of dread. Evans says the direction is right. But the details, he warns, are everything.
Conveyancing is not a single transaction — it is a chain of coordinated actions involving solicitors, lenders, estate agents, surveyors, local authorities, and HM Land Registry. Adjust one element carelessly, and the consequences ripple outward in ways that are difficult to predict and harder to undo. Evans calls for a whole-system approach: meaningful consultation with the conveyancers who navigate this process daily, phased implementation that allows the market to adapt, and genuine piloting of reforms before they are deployed at scale. The goal is not caution for its own sake, but the kind of evidence-based progress that actually delivers change rather than merely relocating the problem.
One reform Evans identifies as particularly necessary is the regulation of estate agents. Unlike solicitors, agents operate without mandatory qualifications or enforceable professional standards — an inconsistency that leaves consumers exposed in what is often the largest financial transaction of their lives. Bringing agents within a proper regulatory framework would strengthen trust across the entire process.
On technology, Evans is careful. Digital property logbooks, improved data-sharing, and better system integration all hold genuine promise. But digital tools can only enhance what is already sound — they cannot repair what is fundamentally broken. Investment in data infrastructure, consistent access to reliable information, and a regulatory environment that supports innovation while protecting consumers must come first. The Law Society's offer is one of partnership: work with the profession, get the detail right, keep the focus on consumer outcomes, and the opportunity to build something genuinely better is real.
Mark Evans, president of the Law Society, stands at a peculiar crossroads. The government has announced plans to overhaul how people buy and sell homes in Britain—to strip away delays, cut through bureaucracy, make the whole thing faster and more transparent. It's a direction Evans welcomes. For years, conveyancing has been a maze of complexity that leaves people uncertain, waiting, frustrated. The ambition to fix it is, he says, long overdue.
But ambition and delivery are not the same thing. Evans's message, delivered with the careful precision of someone who has spent a career in law, is this: the vision is sound, but the details matter enormously. And right now, many of those details remain unclear. The government has sketched the outline of reform. It has not yet drawn the full picture. Until it does, Evans says, it is impossible to know whether these changes will actually work.
Conveyancing is not a simple transaction. It involves solicitors, lenders, estate agents, surveyors, local authorities, and HM Land Registry—a constellation of professionals and institutions that must coordinate for a property deal to close. Change one piece in isolation, and you risk breaking something else. This is why Evans insists on what he calls a whole-system approach. The profession must be consulted meaningfully. Conveyancers themselves—the people who do this work every day—cannot be an afterthought. They understand the friction points, the dependencies, the places where one person's delay becomes another person's crisis.
The timeline for implementation will be equally crucial. Evans does not argue for caution as a virtue in itself. Rather, he argues that reform at this scale cannot be rushed. The government has indicated it will phase the changes in, which Evans sees as the right instinct. There must be time for the market to adapt, for new processes to be tested before they are deployed widely. Piloting reforms, gathering evidence, refining proposals based on what actually happens when real people use them—this is how you avoid unintended consequences. This is how you ensure that changes deliver real benefits rather than simply shifting problems around.
One area Evans identifies as particularly ripe for reform is the regulation of estate agents. Solicitors operate within a well-established regulatory framework. Estate agents do not. This inconsistency matters. Consumers expect professional standards from everyone involved in what is often the largest financial transaction of their lives. Mandatory qualifications, enforceable codes of practice, stronger professional oversight—these would strengthen consumer protection and build trust across the entire process.
Technology will play a role in the future of conveyancing. Digital property logbooks, improved data-sharing, better access to reliable information—these tools have the potential to reduce delays and eliminate unnecessary duplication. Better integration of property data across the system could significantly improve efficiency and transparency. But Evans is careful here. Technology is not a solution in itself. Digital tools can enhance a process, but they cannot fix what is fundamentally broken. The success of digitalization depends on the quality of underlying data, on local authorities and public bodies being able to share information effectively, on a regulatory framework that supports innovation while protecting consumers. If reforms rely on digital information being available quickly and reliably, then investment must be made to ensure that systems are consistent, accessible, and capable of handling the demands placed on them.
Evans ends on a note of partnership. The legal profession should welcome the opportunity to work with government and industry partners to deliver meaningful reform. The ambition is sound. The direction is right. But success requires that reform be practical, evidence-based, and developed in partnership with people who understand the realities of conveyancing. Get the detail right. Take a measured approach to implementation. Keep the focus on consumer outcomes. Do that, and there is an opportunity to build a system that works better for everyone involved.
Citações Notáveis
The vision is clear, but key questions remain about how the reforms will operate in practice and how they will interact with the many professionals involved in a property transaction.— Mark Evans, Law Society president
Reform on this scale cannot and should not happen overnight. There must be realistic lead-in periods to allow the market to adapt and sufficient opportunity to test new processes before they are rolled out more widely.— Law Society statement
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does the Law Society think the government's plans are good but also worry they might not work?
Because ambition and execution are different things. The government has the right idea—faster, more transparent home buying. But conveyancing involves dozens of moving parts: solicitors, lenders, local authorities, surveyors, HM Land Registry. Change one thing without understanding how it affects the others, and you create new problems.
So the Law Society wants the government to slow down?
Not slow down—be deliberate. Phased implementation, piloting, testing before full rollout. You can't reform a system this complex overnight without breaking something. The question is whether the government will actually consult with the people who do this work every day.
What's the biggest gap right now?
The proposals are high-level. The vision is clear, but the practical details are missing. How will these reforms actually interact with all the different professionals and organizations involved? Until you answer that, you don't know if it's deliverable.
You mentioned estate agent regulation. Why is that important?
Solicitors have strong regulation. Estate agents don't. That inconsistency matters when consumers are making the biggest financial decision of their lives. Mandatory qualifications and enforceable standards would build trust across the whole process.
What about technology—isn't that the answer?
Technology helps, but it's not magic. Digital tools are only as good as the data behind them. If local authorities can't share information reliably, if systems aren't consistent, then digital property logbooks and data-sharing don't solve anything. You need investment in infrastructure first.
So what does success look like?
Reform that's practical, evidence-based, and developed with the people who understand conveyancing. Get the detail right, implement carefully, keep focus on what actually helps consumers. That's how you build a system that works better for everyone.