The Land Registry is nor being sold, as yet

Posted on September 8 2016

The Guardian reports this morning that:

Controversial plans to sell off the Land Registry have been put on hold, while ministers review responses to the government's consultation.

The Queen's speech in May included an outline of a neighbourhood planning bill, which the government said would enable the privatisation of the Land Registry, which keeps records on property ownership in England and Wales.

However, that element does not appear in the bill set to go before parliament on Wednesday.

It was quite extraordinary that the Land Registry was ever considered for sale. At a time when transparency, not least with regard to such a critical issue as land ownership, is considered vital to the fight against corruption and tax abuse the sale of the Land Registry was a very obvious move that would have undermined all potential moves to improve legal compliance as a result of the creation of cost impediments. The reprieve is, therefore, welcome.

It would be better still to know that it is permanent.

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4 Responses

  1. PSR says:
    September 8 2016 at 8:35 am

    Indeed.

    But these Tories are very persistant. I bet that someone out there wants it.

  2. Andrew Dickie says:
    September 8 2016 at 10:27 am

    Indeed. I’ve posted on this before, along the following lines.

    First, once privatised, the Land Registry will fall outside the scope of the Freedom of Information Act – a particularly egregious example of a systemic fault in our law. I would argue that privatised national entities should carry FoI accessibility with them into the private sector.

    Secondly, the scope for shenanigans thereby hidden from public view is enormous.

    One particular example I have mentioned before is that of the 100’s of state built and state maintained schools, the title deeds of which were handed over to his chums – free, gratis, and totally unencumbered – by the unlamented former Education Secretary, Michael Give, a “hidden” privatisation amounting to £billions, which didn’t even generate any income for the Treasury.

    And even more astonishingly, the Department of Education cannot even say who got which schools, as they do not, they say, “have any record” of these transactions.

    But the Land Registry will, or should, have such a record.

    I would hope that any future Labour Government will, day 1, issue an Order in Council to say that, whatever may appear on the face of the Title Deed, all state built and constructed schools and lands shall be deemed to be state owned, and let those who purport to “own” them test their ownership in the Courts.

    I’d be willing to bet that such “owners” who did come forward would be shown to be debtors, not creditors, to the state, given the “rent” they should have been paying.

  3. Touzoula LoizidouI read it sonewhere so it must be true. says:
    September 8 2016 at 4:18 pm

    I agree. Privatising the Land Registry would so to speak be ” a curtilage too far” (!)