The Chairman of the Glasgow Solicitors Property Centre, Michael Samuel, has called for a merger with the ESPC, to create a single central belt property centre.

Samuel, chairman of Glasgow’s Miller Samuel, says that the move is necessary to protect both organisations after the worst conveyancing downturn in the modern era.

Earlier this month the Edinburgh Conveyancers Forum took the unprecedented step of calling on the entire executive management of the ESPC to step down within two months over concerns about its financial affairs.

“I see the vulnerability of both companies in this market now. We really need to push this forward. It is a huge step, but I think it is the only way forward,” he told The Firm.

“People often speak of a divide, but I believe there could be a tremendous synergy. There is a standard missive now. There should be a coming together. We run the companies for the benefit of our members: solicitors. Whatever east/west rivalries there may have been, competition from outside will get even more ferocious and we just won’t be there. Both companies will be weakened considerably by this downturn, and we have to try something radical.

“A lot of people have suggested this to me in the past, but it now must be embraced. This is the moment, and the time to do it.”

Samuel, who has chaired the GSPC since 1996, argues that a merger of both property centres would result in cost savings arising through consolidation of back office functions. In addition to the replacement of the executive management, the 50 member Edinburgh Conveyancers Forum called for a corporate reorganisation of the ESPC, together with the production of a “coherent business plan”, citing concerns with the ESPC's declared financial position. It is understood that the GSPC is presently operating at a profit.

Samuel also says that a unified central belt property centre could -and should- retain the existing east-west branding of the two property centres.

“From marketing, from administration, there could be substantial savings that could benefit our members. If we got together on advertising we could attract substantially more than we could individually. That would be the way forward," he says.

“We should get together, we should cooperate. We have met with the Edinburgh board, but we only get so far. They have internal problems that they need to sort out before they could do it. I think they have some impediments in the way their administration is run. But where there is a will, there is a way.”