Buying process reform guru to speak at The Guild conference panel

The man who is leading the government’s efforts to reform the house buying process will be one of the speaker at The Guild of Property Professionals’ annual conference panel discussion next week.

Matt Prior, a senior civil servant at the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, is leading the government’s work to deliver a quicker and cheaper home buying and selling process. He has worked for the Department for the past nine years.

He is joined on the panel by The Property Ombudsman, Katrine Sporle. Redress and the future of the industry’s Ombudsman services is also at the centre of the government’s reform programme this year. 

Also on the panel is Neil Cobbold, chief executive officer of Payprop UK, the rental payment automation PropTech platform. 

The final panel member is Paul Offley, compliance officer at GPEA Limited - he is an estate agent with over 37 years working with both corporate and independent at branch, area, regional and board level. 

Chairing the panel is the editor of Estate Agent Today and Letting Agent Today, Graham Norwood, who also contributes as a freelance to the property sections of various national newspapers.

The panel will voice opinions on changes to the sector and the impact the government’s proposals will have on the industry moving forward.

The discussion with be one of the centrepieces of The Guild of Property Professionals Annual Conference on January 17. 

Guild chief executive Iain McKenzie says: “Over the past year, the sector has been subjected to several legislative changes which have all impacted on the industry. Moving forward into 2019, it’s likely that we will see more changes to government policy which will again influence the industry. The aim of the panel is to unpack the possible changes we could see, the reason behind the changes and how they could affect estate agents both now and in the future.”