CIE Review of Government’s Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap

CIE review of the Government’s Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap and our view on how this is supported by the work of CIE

Conveyancing Information Executive (CIE) was created to provide a rigorous and transparent approach to property search governance, with data integrity, accuracy, provenance and transparency at the heart of its standards. Its purpose is to raise data quality standards across property searches and improve the quality of information used in conveyancing.

One of CIE’s most visible achievements has been the development of formal standards for property search providers and the introduction of the CIE Quality Mark. This quality mark allows conveyancers, lenders, buyers and sellers to identify reports produced under recognised data quality and governance standards.

With the Government’s Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap published on 19 June 2026, Home buying and selling reform – GOV.UK  we are taking a look at how the reforms are supported by the work of CIE. The objectives of the reforms can be summarised as:  

Mandatory upfront property information (“Sales Packs”) – Sellers provide comprehensive property information before marketing.

Digital, reusable property information – Standardised digital property data and property logbooks.

Greater transaction certainty – Earlier commitment between parties.

Improved professional standards – Property agent code of practice.

Digitalisation and interoperability – Better sharing of trusted information across the transaction chain.

The overall reception has been largely positive across the property industry, with most industry bodies, conveyancers, property technology firms, estate agents and lenders agree with the Government’s diagnosis that the current system requires reform. 

As an industry body with long-standing objectives focused on data quality, governance, provenance and transparency the published aims of CIE are remarkably well aligned with the aims of the Government’s Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap. In many respects, the Government’s Roadmap is institutionalising principles that CIE (Industry Standards – CIE)  has been advocating since its formation.

To take the aims of the Government’s Roadmap and compare them with the published Industry Standards from CIE shows a very strong alignment which is set out below:

Upfront Information = Data Quality First

MHCLG: Move information gathering to the beginning of the process via sales packs.

CIE: Improve the quality, accuracy and completeness of property information used in conveyancing.

CIE interpretation: The Government is recognising that transaction delay is fundamentally a data problem. Better information earlier means fewer enquiries, fewer surprises and fewer fall-throughs

Digital Property Packs = Data Governance

MHCLG: Create reusable digital property information and property logbooks.

CIE: Data provenance, transparency and governance are essential to future conveyancing.

CIE interpretation: Digital property packs are only scalable if participants trust the data source, audit trail and quality standards. That sits squarely within CIE’s original rationale for existence.

Reduced Fall-Throughs

MHCLG: Reduce the current one-in-three transaction failure rate

CIE: Improve information quality so decisions are made on better evidence earlier.

CIE interpretation: While CIE is not directly focused on contracts or reservation agreements, its standards are intended to remove one of the primary causes of fall-throughs: poor or incomplete information.

Responsible Innovation

MHCLG: Promotes Smart Data, digital property information, AI-assisted process and connected systems. 

CIE: Promotes responsible innovation, progressing the digital agenda and supporting technological advancement without compromising data quality.

CIE interpretation: MHCLG are adopting the same digital transformation principles that CIE has been advocating for several years, with CIE providing the governance framework needed to make these reforms trustworthy and sustainable.

The Government’s Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap (19 June 2026) and the work of the CIE are highly complementary. The Roadmap seeks to create a faster, more certain and increasingly digital home-moving process through earlier access to trusted property information, improved data sharing and greater interoperability across the transaction chain. CIE has spent the last several years developing the underlying data standards, governance frameworks, search standards, quality assurance processes and UPRN-based property identification principles needed to make those reforms work in practice.In simple terms The Government’s Roadmap sets out the destination for a digital, data-driven home buying process, while CIE’s standards provide much of the trusted data foundation required to achieve it.

The CIE welcomes membership applications from all organisations that support the UK’s conveyancing industry and adopt the highest industry data standards.  For more information, please visit www.conveyinfoexec.com