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At last - MPs starting to understand what has been going on in conveyancing over many years. I agree that not all developer panel conveyancers are incompetent or prepared to marginalise their professional integrity in the manner described. Like many others, I have been a point of referral in the past (but not from developers) and have never allowed any relationship with an agent, broker or other solicitor to compromise standards - doing the job properly and the clients' best interests have always been my focus, second only to our overriding obligation to uphold the law as officers of the court.

However, cosy relationships between developers and solicitors is not the only issue, is it? At the risk of howls of protests from those that indulge, how about MPs getting their heads around the scandal that is euphemistically referred to as a "referral fee". How are the best interests of a client served by an inbuilt system that dictates that all persons dealing with a given agent are automatically pushed towards a firm, often hundreds of miles away, with no analysis of what is actually best for that client - oh and nice fat payment from the recipient firm to the referring agent. We all know this has nothing to do with clients' best interests and all about lining the pockets of those who operate the system.

If you throw in the pressure that is exerted to encourage clients to take up the offer (one agent I know used to tell a selling client that if they didn't use the solicitors they advise, their selling commission would increase!!), then you have a thoroughly disreputable situation that desperately needs reform and regulation.

I am not alone in these views but nothing gets done about it.