Four of the UK’s biggest mortgage lenders have reassured solicitors that they have no plans to cut firms from residential conveyancing panels. Last week, Abbey cut the number of law firm offices on its panel from 12,000 to 6,050, provoking dismay from those affected.

Halifax, Nationwide, Northern Rock and Woolwich assured the Gazette this week that they have no plans to reduce the size of their panels in the near future.

Meanwhile, the Law Society of Scotland said it will join forces with the Law Society to bring Abbey to the table for a new round of talks. Abbey reinstated 244 of the 319 axed firms with existing or planned instructions following talks with Chancery Lane last week, with the remaining 75 due to follow.

Abbey’s head of customer services, Keith Bowran, wrote to the firms affected on 16 March, saying that their panel membership had been revoked because of ‘the low volume of transactions dealt with by your firm’ over the past year.