The vision for the group is for everyone involved in buying, leasing and selling land and property to experience a secure and modern market that is transparent, customer-friendly and business-friendly at all stages.

It will be achieved through collaboration, innovation and a focus on emerging digital technologies to build on existing progress across the home-buying and selling system to get a better result for the customer: simpler, faster, more certain and less stressful.

The Group believes that if information about properties was available immediately to all concerned and everything was handled digitally, it could speed up the property market, reduce stress and the risk of failed transactions.

It notes that it is more than 20 years since the Land Registration Act 2002 was introduced with the hope that ‘e-conveyancing’, which it enabled in law, would deliver real benefits. While there has been some progress since then, the job of modernising the process has proved more challenging than first envisaged and it recognises that no single institution can achieve this on its own. Hence the group approach.

The DPMSG’s purpose is to help the property market work better for all by accelerating the adoption of digital technology, while ensuring it is transparent, secure and consumer friendly, through collaboration and innovation across the sector.

It has representation from key areas of the sector where there is likely to be the greatest potential for accelerated digital adoption. The Council for Licensed Conveyancers is one of the founding members, alongside the Law Society, Conveyancing Association (CA), The Society of Licensed Conveyancers, Solicitors Regulation Authority, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX), CILEx Regulation, Council of Property Search Organisations, Propertymark, Building Societies Association, UK Finance, and HM Land Registry.

The membership and shared vision of DPMSG means it is well placed to join up with the delivery activity being led by other groups who share the same ambition for a better property market including the Home Buying and Selling Group (HBSG).

The Group’s launch event in September 2023 was well attended, with over 300 stakeholders from across the property market including housing minister Rachel Maclean. Ms Maclean described the current home-buying system as “acting not just as a block on economic growth but also as a source of great personal frustration, costing households millions”.

To change this, she went on, “nothing less of a total overhaul of the system will do, harnessing the power of digitisation to make it more transparent and streamlined so that it works for buyers and sellers alike”.

She acknowledged the progress made through National Trading Standards requiring more upfront information in property listings and HM Land Registry’s local land charges programme, “which will speed up searches”.

However, she recognised the need to go further to accelerate the pace of change and promised that her department would be outlining its strategy in support of this soon.

Sadly, no such strategy appeared in the recent King’s Speech as the government seems focused on long overdue reform of leasehold.

In the meantime, the CLC will continue to play an active part in helping the steering group achieve its aims and would encourage anyone with views on how to digitally transform the land and property market to get involved.

Stephen Ward is director of strategy and external relations at the Council for Licensed Conveyancers