LSSA and Ministry of Housing strategy adviser discuss proposed home buying reforms

The government’s strategy adviser at the Ministry of Housing recently met with members of the Legal Software Suppliers Association (LSSA) to gain input on proposed reforms to the home buying and home selling process.

At the meeting, members expressed optimism that reforms might succeed on this occasion. Multiple stakeholders have now engaged across the ecosystem of property transactions and not just in one sector. Technology is far more mature than it was 20 years ago, with 60% of code now generated by AI agents. 

“There’s multi-stakeholder engagement through the Open Property Data Association (OPDA) – and the LSSA has a memorandum of understanding with them – and the government’s smart data scheme, which is creating momentum.  This is no longer just a technology problem, because trust frameworks and data standards are evolving. Today there’s more energy and passion to fix the broken property market than there has been in the past 25 years,” commented Kevin Horlock, CEO of the LSSA.

Tim Kidd, CEO of the Institute of Legal Finance and Management (ILFM), made clear that it will be his members in law firms who will need to implement the changes, explaining that their input to the proposals will be important.

The LSSA emphasised the reforms constitute “catch up” and not innovation, noting that the process is ten years behind the DVLA and Passport Office on digital data exchange. Members support the move towards earlier binding contracts and upfront information. They make clear that what matters is trust in the provenance of data and not a centralisation of that data.