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The proposition that Her Majesty's Land Registry can be privatised does not stand up to any serious scrutiny. The authors of the Government consultation document had a woefully inadequate grasp of how an impartial and guaranteed system of land registration is the facilitator of security of title and a functioning property and mortgage market.

There is, every day, a massive movement across the country in interests in land. These arise from sale and purchase, inheritance, mortgage, leases, easements, matrimonial and family matters. In addition bankruptcies, repossessions, the protection of third party rights and Orders of the Court relating to land rights require protection by registration. Because it is constantly maintained, and records the priority of all pending land transactions in England and Wales, the land register stands to give authoritative and guaranteed notice to all. It is the maintenance of the national land register which enables vendors to demonstrate proof of ownership, and purchasers and lenders to carry through their intentions to contract and to completion safely and simply.

None of this massive and daily movement of guaranteed interests in land, between citizens, business, public bodies and financial institutions, on which the market economy depends, could function without an impartial and trusted system of land registration

The input to this dynamic land register is the constant flow of agreements, contracts, deeds and documents - freely made between people, banks, institutions, local and central government and the Crown – in any combination and at any time. Decisions are made, contracts are agreed, registration is effected. The ever changing legal relationship of land and people is constantly and instantly reflected in a public place. What would otherwise be hidden is synthesized into a common, guaranteed and public record open to all. Security, confidence, transparency, choice - all become possible. Land registration is a statutory and adjudicatory process. Publicly registered land rights are ‘good against the world’.

The proposition in the Consultation Document that a private company will have the power to create, vary or extinguish land rights – of other companies, citizens, banks, public authorities and even the Crown, makes no sense at all. The proposal to privatise the Land Registry should be abandoned.

John Manthorpe
Former Chief Land Registrar