A shake-up to the house-buying system which could cut a month off the time it takes – and slash around £700 from the moving bill – is on the table.

Changes could include requiring property sellers and estate agents to provide more information when a home is listed for sale, reducing the need for buyers to carry out searches and surveys.

Binding contracts could also be introduced at an earlier stage, reducing the risk of a chain collapsing.

The proposals could also deliver clearer information to consumers about estate agents and conveyancers, including their track record and expertise, along with new mandatory qualifications and a code of practice to drive up standards.

Housing Secretary Steve Reed said the proposals, which are the subject of a consultation, would help make “a simple dream, a simple reality”.

The government says it will set out a full roadmap in the new year after consulting on its proposals.

Mr Reed said: “Buying a home should be a dream, not a nightmare.

“Our reforms will fix the broken system so hardworking people can focus on the next chapter of their lives.”

Officials believe the proposed package of reforms could cut around a month off the time it takes to buy a new home and save first-time buyers an average of £710.

People selling a home could face increased costs of around £310 due to the inclusion of upfront assessments and surveys.

Those in the middle of a chain would potentially gain a net saving of £400 as a result of the increased costs from selling being outweighed by lower buying expenses.

Wider use of online processes, including digital ID, could help make transactions smoother, the government argued, pointing to the Finnish digital real estate system which can see the process completed in around two weeks.

The consultation also draws on other jurisdictions, including the Scottish system where there is more upfront information and earlier binding contracts.

‘Process the same as for our grandparents’

The planned shake-up was welcomed by property websites and lenders.

Rightmove chief executive Johan Svanstrom said: “The home-moving process involves many fragmented parts, and there’s simply too much uncertainty and costs along the way.

“Speed, connected data and stakeholder simplicity should be key goals. We believe it’s important to listen to agents as the experts for what practical changes will be most effective, and we look forward to working with the government on this effort to improve the buying and selling process.”

Santander’s head of homes David Morris said: “At a time when technology has changed many processes in our lives, it is incredible that the process of buying a home – an activity that is a cornerstone of our economy – remains much the same for today’s buyers as it did for their grandparents.”

Conservative shadow housing minister Paul Holmes said that while Labour welcomed steps to digitise and speed up the process, the party risked “reinventing the last Labour government’s failed Home Information Packs – which reduced the number of homes put on sale, and duplicated costs across buyers and sellers”.

The Tories will pledge to make even further cuts to the foreign aid budget, as the party attempts to regain its reputation for fiscal responsibility in the wake of the Truss mini-budget.

Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride will unveil plans to cut overseas development aid to 0.1% of Gross National Income (GNI), down from the current 0.3%, cementing a sea change in the Conservative Party’s position on international aid.

In his keynote speech to the party conference in Manchester, Sir Mel will claim that his plans can save £47bn over the next parliament, which include cuts to welfare, the civil service, and green subsidies.

In the wake of the Truss mini-budget that saw the pound fall and interest rates soar, the senior MP will say that his party will “never, ever make fiscal commitments without spelling out exactly how they will be paid for”, and commit to fiscal responsibility.

A key part of Sir Mel’s plans to demonstrate that is to reduce foreign aid to 0.1% of GNI, or around £3bn per year – down from spending of an estimated £9.4bn in 2028-29.

The Boris Johnson government reduced aid spending to 0.5% of GNI in 2021, in order to pay for the vast public spending during the pandemic. Sir Keir Starmer announced a further cut to 0.3% of GNI earlier this year to pay for the increase in defence spending.

Bond, the network for organisations working in international development and humanitarian assistance, has hit out at the announcement, describing it as “reckless, short-sighted, and morally indefensible”.

Its chief executive, Romilly Greenhill, told Conservatives at a fringe event at the Tory Party conference on Sunday: “Let’s just be really clear, such a policy would negatively impact millions of people around the world.

“It would harm deeply vital programmes being made in reducing, eradicating, killer diseases, and it would also severely undermine our ability to respond to devastating global crises.”

But the Tories say they “cannot justify taxing people in this country to pay for billions of spending abroad”, and it marks the death-knell of Tory former prime minister David Cameron’s target of spending 0.7% of GNI on aid, announced in 2011.

Welfare, green subsidies, and asylum hotels to face the chop

Another key area where Sir Mel will pledge to make savings will be the welfare system, where they claim £23bn can be cut.

He will say that narrowing the eligibility for sickness benefits, stopping claims from people with “low-level mental health problems” who could be treated instead, limiting the VAT subsidy for Motability, and reforming job-seeking obligations are key areas where savings can be made.

But a major change will be restricting welfare to British citizens – bringing Tory party policy in line with Reform UK.

But he will vow to reverse any decision from the current Labour government to lift the two-child benefit cap, which stands in contrast with Nigel Farage’s party that wants to lift it.

Sir Mel is expected to say the reforms are essential not just for balancing the books, but for tackling the deeper social damage caused by long-term dependency.

Another key target of the shadow chancellor is the civil service, where he will argue that £8bn in savings can be made by reducing the headcount from 517,000 down to 2016 levels of 384,000.

Scrapping the Climate Change Act and “costly and ineffective green subsidies being pushed by Ed Miliband” is also on Sir Mel’s agenda. The Tories say there are savings of £1.6bn a year to be made in this area.

And closing all asylum hotels will save at least £3.5bn, the Tories say – at least £1.6bn of which they have already allocated to their new ICE-style “removals force”, to detain and remove 150,000 illegal migrants per year.

In his speech, Sir Mel Stride MP is expected to say: “The Conservative Party will never, ever make fiscal commitments without spelling out exactly how they will be paid for.

“We’re the only party that gets it. The only party that will stand up for fiscal responsibility. We must get on top of government spending.

“We cannot deliver stability unless we live within our means. No more pretending we can keep spending money we simply do not have.”

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‘Trussonomics is still in full swing’

But Labour Party chair Anna Turley said: “The Tories let welfare bills, civil service numbers and asylum hotel use skyrocket on their watch – and they’ve never apologised. Now they want to rehash failed promises from their failed manifesto to try to solve the problems they caused.

“This is the same old Tories, with the same old policies. They didn’t work then and you can’t trust them now.”

And Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said it was “clear the Conservative Party learnt absolutely nothing from their disastrous handling of the economy, which left families struggling with a cost-of-living crisis and public services on their knees”.

She added: “Cutting vital support to bring household bills down, trying to balance the books on the backs of people with mental health conditions and slashing the UK’s soft power abroad through aid budget cuts shows Trussonomics is still in full swing.”

The streets of Britain have turned into “theatres of intimidation”, Kemi Badenoch has warned in a speech to mark the opening of the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

Speaking just days after a terror attack at a synagogue in the city left two people dead, the Tory leader claimed extremism “has gone unchecked” in the UK.

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She said this had manifested in Pro-Palestine protests which are “in fact carnivals of hatred directed at the Jewish homeland”.

She cited the use of “asinine slogans” such as ‘Globalise the Intifada’, saying this “means nothing at all, if it doesn’t mean targeting Jewish people for violence”.

Ms Badenoch added: “So the message from this conference, from this party, from every decent and right-thinking person in this country must be that we will not stand for it any more. We cannot import and tolerate values hostile to our own.

“We must now draw a line and say that in Britain you can think what you like, and within the bounds of the law you can say what you like, but you have no right to turn our streets into the theatres of intimidation and we will not let you do so any more.“

Ms Badenoch has said she supports the government’s efforts to impose restrictions on repeat protests in light of the Manchester terror attack.

Nearly 500 people were arrested over protests supporting the proscribed group Palestine Action in central London on Saturday.

Demonstrators defied calls from political leaders, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, to reconsider the event out of respect for the grief of the British Jewish community.

The chief of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, also called for the event to be postponed, saying he was worried resources would be stretched and the ability of the force to protect communities would be compromised.

ECHR plan ‘not vague mush’

Elsewhere in her speech, Ms Badenoch spoke about her policy to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and carry out “ICE-style” deportations if she wins the next election.

She said that shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Alex Burghart will lead a review into a union-wide implementation of leaving the ECHR, so voters have “a clear, thorough and robust plan, not the vague mush that we see day in, day out from Labour, nor the vacuous posturing that we see day in, day out from Reform”.

The plan has been condemned by Former Conservative justice secretary and Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland, who lost his seat at the 2024 election.

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Active plot against Kemi Badenoch at this party conference in Manchester

“I have seen first-hand how deeply this issue touches our constitution, our Union, and our international standing. It would be a profound mistake to go down this path,” he wrote in an article for Conservative Home.

The comments reflect how the issue has long divided the party, with “one nation” moderates like Mr Buckland opposed to the idea of leaving the ECHR, and others seeing it as necessary to get a grip on illegal migration and tackle Reform UK.

In a sign she won’t shy away from that fight, Ms Badenoch told GB News earlier that every Conservative candidate must sign up to her plan to leave the ECHR, or they would be barred from standing at the next election.

‘Mountain to climb’

The Tories are languishing in the polls behind Reform and Labour after suffering their worst-ever defeat at the election last year.

Ms Badenoch, who was elected to lead the party last November, ended her speech acknowledging there was a “mountain to climb” but insisting she was up for the fight.

“Britain needs deep change. But I reject the politics that everything must go, that everything must be torn down, that everything is broken,” she said.

“If we leave it to Labour or Reform, Britain will be divided. Only the Conservatives can bring this country back together.

“So, I say to you all as we start our conference, yes, we have a mountain to climb, but we have a song in our hearts, and we are up for the fight.”