Project 28 Charter Property Panel: One year on, from commitment to change in action
11 September 2026
One year on from the launch of the Project 28 Charter, more than 130 senior leaders from across the homebuying and selling sector came together in London on 10th September to explore how the industry can turn its commitment to change into faster, more certain and more trusted property transactions.
Moderated by Financial Times Consumer Editor Claer Barrett, the event brought together Project 28 Charter members, media, policy makers and other leading voices from across the property sector to explore how businesses are adapting to change, share best practice and identify where greater collaboration is needed to improve the home moving process.
Panellists included Derek Burt, Director of Home Operations at Lloyds Banking Group; Ben Davidson, Managing Director at AConveyancing; Verona Frankish, CEO of Yopa; and Travis Scholes, Chief Commercial Officer at LMS.
Opening the event, Simon Brown, CEO of Landmark Information Group, reflected on the progress made in the Charter’s first year, connecting the Charter’s commitments to the Government’s reform agenda. He also set out why the next phase must focus on implementation, evidence and wider adoption.
What changes when information comes earlier?
The panel discussion quickly moved from ambition to action. Travis Scholes, Chief Commercial Officer at LMS, explained how key information can be captured once and reused across the transaction.
By collecting, validating and securely sharing property, title and search data earlier, property professionals can work from the same trusted source rather than repeatedly recreating information. In a pilot involving around 2,000 transactions, participating cases saw a 40% reduction in fall-throughs.
But as Travis explained, the value is not just in having more information sooner, but in what that makes possible. Work can start earlier, more activity can happen in parallel, and potential friction can be addressed before it becomes delay.
Identifying issues before they become blockers
For property professionals, the systems they are using to maximise capacity and complexity are also changing. Ben Davidson, Managing Director at AConveyancing, explained how they are bringing legal due diligence forward through upfront property intelligence and risk-based triage.
Its platform can collect around 300 property data points within minutes, assess them against a complexity matrix and highlight issues such as freehold management arrangements, Section 106 agreements or maintenance responsibilities while the property is still being marketed.
The result is a more proactive approach to conveyancing: likely enquiries and blockers can be identified sooner, sales files can be prepared before sale agreed, and buyers and sellers can start with clearer expectations. The firm also reported reduced time from instruction to exchange when acting on both sides of a transaction.
Bringing in the seller and buyer view
Verona Frankish, CEO of Yopa, brought both the estate agency and consumer perspective to the discussion, having tested the upfront legal pack pilot on the sale of her own home.
Her reflections showed how earlier preparation can give buyers clearer information from the start, but she also outlined that the process needs to feel straightforward for sellers and workable for agents. The opportunity is to make better preparation feel like a smoother journey, not an extra burden.
Changing the sequence of the transaction
Derek Burt, Director of Home Operations at Lloyds Banking Group, explained how their pilot with LMS and Connells is changing sequencing in practice. Sellers become digitally sale-ready upfront, buyers complete identity and source-of-funds checks earlier, and searches are initiated closer to listing rather than after an offer has been accepted.
The aim is to reduce duplicated requests and prevent issues emerging weeks into a sale by capturing trusted information once and reusing it across the transaction. The working hypothesis is that the approach could deliver a 30% reduction in end-to-end completion times and a 20% reduction in fall-through rates.
Making collaboration work in practice
As the conversation turned to delivery, collaboration became the practical test. Property transactions span multiple organisations, systems and regulatory requirements, so progress depends on more than good intent. It requires shared information, aligned processes and common outcomes.
The case studies showed what this looks like in practice: agents, lenders, conveyancers and technology partners working from trusted data, acting earlier and reducing repeated requests for buyers and sellers. The panel concluded that wider adoption will depend on confidence, consistency and the ability to scale beyond individual pilots.
From pilot activity to wider adoption
With the Government’s home buying and selling reform agenda developing, the timing of the event was significant. The panel underlined a clear opportunity for industry and government to work together around trusted information, digital adoption and common standards, turning reform ambition into practical change that can be tested, measured and scaled.
One year after launch, the conversation has moved beyond why change is needed. The focus now is on what works, what buyers and sellers experience differently, and how the best ideas can move from promising pilots to faster, more certain and more transparent property transactions at scale.
Become a Charter member
If your organisation wants to help shape the next phase of change in homebuying and selling, join the Project 28 Charter and be part of the work to make transactions faster, more certain and better connected: