Report comment

The Land Registry is one of the most important of public sector assets that, in my opinion, should never be sold or substantially tampered with. Raising money in this way, in order to reduce the public deficit, is short sighted and dangerous.

For most people in England and Wales safe and secure ownership of their property is of paramount importance, for the most obvious of reasons. Their property is their biggest asset and will, in many cases, provide their families with financial security for generations to come.

In the 42 years I have been involved in conveyancing there has been one constant provider of reliable service and that is the LR. The Government selling the Land Registry is akin to having the morals of someone prepared to sell their own Grandmother.

The Government’s proposal would mean a private company, rather than the impartial and statutory LR, would be adjudicating title on transactions between other private companies, on the land rights of citizens, of mortgage lenders, and local and central government. This makes no sense.

A few points to consider:

• The LR underpins property ownership worth £4 trillion across England and Wales including £1 trillion of mortgages
• The LR holds over 24 million titles of land
• The LR should remain under impartial control
• The LR provides a guaranteed register of interests in land
• The LR is run at no cost to the Exchequer
• A new owner is likely to want to increase prices
• A new owner would seek to increase profits and is likely to want to ‘streamline’ services
• A new owner would effectively have a monopoly market
• With property fraud on the increase and the LR in many cases the last barrier to a fraud being perpetrated, the continued first class service being provided is vital
• Selling the LR is financially very short-sighted. It already makes a substantial profit. With a very modest increase in the cost of some of the services provided, that profit could increase
• The LR being run by a new owner might not be as efficient, causing delays in registrations and other applications, resulting in more transactions falling through

Never has the expression’ if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’ come to mind so readily. If you are opposed to the privatisation of the LR please sign the petition (and ask others to do the same):

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-privatisation-of-the-land-registry

If you would like to get more actively involved please email me (rh@boldgroup.co.uk) and I will let you know what more you can do.