Co-operative Financial Services (CFS), which has recently merged with Britannia Building Society, is to axe 3,600 sole practitioners from its conveyancing panel, it has emerged.

The Law Society has urged the CFS not to remove the large number of sole practitioners who had been on Britannia’s panel.

Letters were sent this week to the 3,600 sole practitioners on the conveyancing panel of Britannia, which merged with CFS on 1 August 2009, giving them one month’s notice of their removal from the panel. The CFS is part of The Co-operative Group.

The Law Society has requested an urgent meeting with Bob Burlton, CFS chairman, and has written to the building society to express its concern about the impact the move will have on the solicitor firms concerned and on access to justice.

Law Society president Robert Heslett wrote: ‘I was shocked and saddened that such a step should be taken in the depths of the most severe recession since the second world war.

‘The implications for the 3,600 businesses and the people employed by those businesses are stark, to say the least, and could have a knock-on effect on access to justice if any are forced to close as a result.’

A CFS spokesman said: ‘Following the merger between Britannia and CFS, our insurers notified us that, unless we stopped instructing sole practitioners to act for Britannia or Platform Home Loans, mortgage fraud insurance cover for the entire business would be withdrawn.

‘The insurance market as a whole has hardened over the last 12 months. Cover is more expensive and more restrictive. Our insurers will not give sole practitioner cover and many other insurers won’t either. We owe a duty to our members and customers to ensure best cover at the best price, so we can’t simply choose cover at any cost.’