Business & Technology
UK Open Property roadmap aims to speed up homebuying
The Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology has published an Open Property Roadmap for the UK homebuying market, backed by the Department for Business and Trade.
The Roadmap sets out a model for sharing verified property data across lenders, conveyancers, estate agents, surveyors, search providers and public bodies to reduce delays and failed transactions. It is intended to move homebuying away from fragmented, paper-based processes and marks the first major Smart Data initiative beyond financial services.
Property transactions in the UK take an average of 22 weeks, while about 30% collapse before completion, according to figures cited by CFIT. Those failed deals cost consumers around £560 million in wasted fees and up to £950 million across the wider economy.
The market handles about 1.1 million transactions a year, worth nearly £380 billion, yet less than 1% of the data needed to buy a home is fully digitised. As a result, information is repeatedly requested, checked and shared between multiple parties during a sale.
Next phase
Alongside the publication of the Roadmap, CFIT has secured private-sector funding for the next stage of the project. That phase will focus on prototypes, proof-of-concept work, live testing across the homebuying process, impact assessment and further policy recommendations.
The work stems from CFIT’s Open Property coalition, formed to examine how Smart Data could be applied to home buying and selling. Participants include lenders, conveyancing firms, estate agency groups, property technology businesses, data providers, surveyors and HM Land Registry.
“The UK’s homebuying process is too slow, fragmented and stressful for consumers, with transactions taking months to complete and too many collapsing before completion. This Roadmap shows there is a clear and credible pathway to progress through smarter, more secure and interoperable use of data. This milestone also demonstrates the power of CFIT’s coalition model to tackle systemic challenges that no single organisation can solve alone – bringing together industry, government and regulators to align around practical, deliverable solutions,” said Anna Wallace, Chief Executive of the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology.
The Department for Business and Trade commissioned CFIT to convene the coalition and develop a strategic roadmap for an Open Property Smart Data scheme, with home buying as the main use case. The department’s wider Smart Data strategy aims to extend data-sharing models beyond open banking into other parts of the economy.
Broader model
Officials and industry participants are also treating the property project as a test of whether Smart Data can be applied in other sectors with complex chains of participants and regulated data flows. Areas identified for possible future application include energy, transport and health.
The Roadmap identifies the datasets, standards, governance structures and commercial conditions needed for a fully digital property transaction. The aim is to make verified information available earlier in the process so buyers, sellers and professionals can make decisions sooner and with less duplication.
The work is taking place alongside broader government efforts to reform home buying and selling. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is expected to set out its own plans for the sector, while HM Land Registry is working with local authorities on pilots to improve access to key property data.
Baroness Lloyd, Minister for the Digital Economy, linked the initiative to the government’s wider digital economy agenda.
“Today’s Open Property Roadmap marks an important step in delivering this government’s ambition for a world-leading Smart Data economy. By bringing together industry, regulators and policymakers, CFIT has demonstrated how we can tackle complex, real-world challenges through collaboration and innovation. This work is not just about improving the homebuying process – it is about building the foundations of a modern, data-enabled economy. The coalition model pioneered by CFIT provides practical insights that can inform the government’s implementation of the UK’s Smart Data Strategy, demonstrating how policy ambition can be tested and progressed in real-world sectors,” said Lloyd.
The rationale for focusing on property is both economic and administrative. CFIT cited analysis indicating that a Smart Data approach to home buying could generate about £14.1 billion in net social value over 15 years, with home buying identified as the highest-value Smart Data use case across sectors.
Open Property is designed primarily for house purchases, but the same structure could later be used for remortgaging, maintenance, and resale. For now, the immediate task is to test whether verified digital property information can cut the time and uncertainty that have long defined the UK’s homebuying process.
CFIT estimates that around 530,000 property transactions fail each year.
Business & Technology
Mouse droppings found in Oxford city Chinese restaurant
Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle in New Inn Hall Street was inspected by Oxford City Council on May 26.
Inspectors subsequently handed the Chinese restaurant a rating of two out of five, meaning “improvement necessary”.
According to the report, received by the Oxford Mail after a Freedom of Information request submission, officers identified a series of concerns, including evidence of mouse activity.
The report states that mouse droppings were found throughout the business in two food storage rooms and the bar area.
In one of the storage areas, mouse activity was present where noodles were kept in plastic carrier bags and potatoes and onion were left in the open.
“Historic” mouse droppings at Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle (Image: Oxford City Council)
Inspectors said pest-proofing measures were “not great” and identified a hole beneath a sink in the bar area which could potentially allow pests to enter the premises.
In the report, the inspector said: “At the time of the inspection, I observed a number of historic mouse dropping in both the food storage areas.
“The most recent pest control report mentions no mouse activity in any of the food storage areas.
“All areas where food is prepared and stored must be kept clean and capable of being kept clean. This is so that pests are not attracted into your premises and the risk of food being contaminated by dirt is minimised.”
They advised the owner to remove all historic mouse droppings within the food business and continue to identify any issues of pest proofing within a month.
A hole where pests could have entered underneath the sink (Image: Oxford City Council)
The business was instructed to remove the droppings and improve pest-proofing measures where previous temporary work had failed.
Food storage issues were also highlighted during the inspection.
In an “overfilled” fridge, officers found raw chicken stored above ready-to-eat foods, including uncovered beans and spring onions, which could cause cross-contamination leading to food poisoning.
That same fridge, which stored items such as cooked rice, chicken ballotine and prawns, was above the required eight degrees, raising concern about food poisoning.
A large number of food containers were also unlabelled, despite the food looking fresh.
The officer insisted a “robust system for ensuring adequate stock rotation” was implemented and recommended all food be kept in sealed, pest-proof containers.
An overfilled fridge which was measured above safe temperature (Image: Oxford City Council)
No food-safe sanitiser or disinfectant were available on site, only a kitchen cleaner which they said did not provide adequate disinfection.
Despite the concerns, the report noted there had been a “huge improvement” in cleaning standards since the restaurant’s previous inspection.
The business also had a food safety management system in place and a pest control contract with Pure Pest Solutions.
The council has required a range of improvements, with compliance timescales ranging from one week to one month with a revisit inspection planned.
Business & Technology
Oxford startup secures Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award
Oxford-based Peripear has secured an Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award and a £74,974 grant for its development of a wearable device designed to prevent perineal trauma during labour.
The funding will support continued product development ahead of the company’s planned first-in-human study.
Nina van Schaick, co-founder and COO of Peripear as well as a midwife who trained at Oxford Brookes, said: “I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to see this gap.
“I was incredibly lucky to meet my co-founder, Eviatar Natan, right as my frustration about the lack of translation of evidence into practice had peaked.
“There was a proven mechanism that could reduce injuries occurring in up to 90 per cent of vaginal births, and it was being left out of clinical pathways simply because no standardised tool existed to deliver it.”
Peripear is developing what it describes as the world’s first automated perineal thermotherapy wearable, designed to prevent perineal trauma during childbirth.
A perineal thermotherapy wearable is an emerging medical device.
It is a hands‑free warm compress device used on the perineum during the second stage of labour to reduce severe tearing and episiotomies while improving maternal comfort.
Ms van Schaick added: “I’m a farmer’s granddaughter, and when I started practising over 14 years ago, I asked: where is the tool I need to implement this evidence? I looked around and realised we were still asking clinicians to improvise.
“Peripear is what happens when the person who has lived the problem, both personally and professionally, meets the person who can help her build the solution.”
Business & Technology
UK bike manufacturer on brink of £30m collapse after 139 years
The company behind bikemaker Raleigh, which was founded 139 years ago and has supplied bikes to the UK’s cycling city of Oxford over the years, has filed to appoint administrators.
Accell UK and Ireland, part of Netherlands-based Accell Group, filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators as the wider group kickstarted insolvency proceedings.
This follows a difficult spell for Nottinghamshire-based Raleigh, which confirmed job cuts in 2024 before reporting a £30m loss in financial accounts published the following year.
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The boss of Accell said it was a “deeply sad and frustrating situation” and that it had “tirelessly explored” every option for the future of the cycling business.
The company bought Raleigh in 2012 for around 100 million US dollars (£74 million), adding to its roster of bike brands throughout Europe including Haibike, Winora and Ghost.
Raleigh was founded in Nottingham in 1887 and was well-known for its Chopper model, which featured extended handlebars and is now part of its “retro” range.
It no longer manufactures bikes from Nottingham, and its head office has moved to Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, while the company has shifted to selling electric bikes under Accell’s ownership.
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Accell went through a restructuring in February, securing additional funding from shareholders and lenders and reducing debts.
The group said it had since “explored every possible avenue” for its future, including discussions with potential buyers, but that it had not been possible to find a solution which means the business can continue operating.
It has therefore initiated insolvency proceedings in the Netherlands.
Accell’s chief executive Jonas Nilsson said: “This is a deeply sad and frustrating situation given all the hard work and everything we have achieved, with the support of shareholders and lenders, to restructure Accell’s operations and finances.
“It is an especially difficult moment for our employees, creditors, customers, suppliers, and partners.
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“Every realistic option for the future of the business has been tirelessly explored, and none have resulted in a solution to continue the Group in its current form.
“Our immediate focus is to support an orderly process, provide clarity wherever possible, and work with the relevant court-appointed administrators to preserve viable activities and employment where circumstances allow.”
At its 1970s height, Raleigh employed more than 13,000 people across the UK, with around 8,000 working at its various Triumph Road sites in Nottingham.
The former factory land later became the University of Nottingham’s Jubilee Campus.
Raleigh subsequently moved its headquarters to Church Street in Eastwood, before leaving that site and relocating to Durban House in 2024.
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