Angela Rayner must do more to tackle "endless limbo" of homebuyer delays

Angela Rayner has a major task on her hands. Things have moved in the wrong direction since she last held the job.

Buyers are now waiting an average of 134 days to complete a transaction, with more than one in five deals collapsing before they get there.

The Government's previous commitment to homebuying reforms are a good start. Sales packs, earlier binding agreements and digitisation are the right ideas. But plans that shave a few weeks off an average completion time measured in months are not solving the problem. Reforms need to address the root causes of delays, transaction failures and sunk costs which are losing buyers millions every year.

The new Housing Secretary does not need another consultation to tell her where the blockages are. Chains still collapse because one link stalls and nobody is accountable for pushing it forward. AML and source-of-funds checks, while necessary, are applied inconsistently across firms with no shared digital infrastructure to speed them up.

This is also an industry problem, not just a policy one. Too many firms in this sector still operate reactively. The seller's solicitor waits for lender documentation, the estate agent assumes it is being chased, the lender waits on the broker, and the buyer is left in the dark. Government can mandate digitisation. It cannot mandate a law firm actually picking up the phone.

What the sector needs from Angela Rayner now is delivery, not another framework. Buyers stuck in that endless limbo cannot wait any longer to find out if this time is different.