The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has published a strategic plan for 2023-25.

The document outlines ambitions to grow the regulated community, including “an alternative home” to solicitors and chartered legal executives specialising in conveyancing and probate, the CLC said. It also says the specialist regulator will promote the CLC qualification so as to grow the pipeline of new licensed conveyancers.

The strategy includes a revised list of ethical standards that “should underpin work to further improve service to clients and confidence in the sector”, the CLC added.

The biggest change in the list of principles is an addition requiring licensed conveyancers to “know each customer, treat them fairly, keep their money safe, communicate openly and truthfully, and act in their best interests”.

The need to “communicate openly and truthfully” was added following consultation with the CLC’s Consumer Reference Group and was accepted as a “clearly useful high-level requirement”.

The new strategy commits the CLC to promoting all aspects of improvement in the practice of conveyancing and probate – whether legislative, process change or IT-driven – to enhance client outcomes. The CLC said it will “explore ways to help the regulated community have greater confidence about change and make faster progress”.

Dame Janet Paraskeva, chair of the board of the CLC, commented: “The CLC’s clear focus is on the needs of clients and the public, and we are confident that as a forward-looking regulator that encourages those it regulates to innovate in how they work, within clear ethical boundaries, it protects and promotes the client and public interest.

“The CLC enters this new strategy period in good heart, boosted by strong engagement with our regulated community and interest from other lawyers in the benefits of working with a regulator that truly understands their work and day-to-day pressures.

“It is important to review the profession’s standards regularly to ensure they are keeping up with the challenges of the times and we are satisfied as a council that the new ethical principles do this.”

The CLC’s strategic plan for 2023-25 can be viewed here.