Up to 15 per cent of jobs at Land Registry offices could be at risk after a leaked memo given to the BBC showed management claims of over-capacity'.
The email, which was sent to thousands of employees, said the 15 per cent figure was an "early estimate of the potential capacity that could be created" through future changes.
The memo, which was sent by chief land registrar Ed Lester, said: "Over the next couple of years we estimate that the efficiencies we will deliver will create the capacity to free up approximately 15 per cent of the workforce. That capacity may result in people being redeployed .... but it may also mean some staff reductions."
Plans to privatise the government department were shelved earlier this month following a consultation in January over whether to bring in a private company to run some services.
There has been substantial criticism within the property industry about the Land Registry privatisation and it becoming the sole registering authority for Local Land Charges in England and Wales.
The trade body the Council of Property Search Organisations has been particularly critical, claiming the Land Registry is showing disrespect to its customers and other professionals in the search sector.
Currently, local land charges are maintained and delivered by each of the 348 English and Welsh local authorities. Fees vary between £3 and £96, with a predicted turnaround time of between one and 42 days.
More than a million local land charge searches are undertaken annually by conveyancers as part of residential and commercial property transactions and remortgages.
But the Land Registry says it is to become the sole authority for local land charges, with the move taking place gradually after the Infrastructure Bill completes its passage through Parliament by March 2015, just ahead of the general election.
This flies in the face of the negative responses by all major stakeholders to consultation on this issue. The Land Registry have taken the extraordinary step of proceeding with the legislative process before they even published the results of the consultation claims CoPSA chairman James Sherwood-Rogers.
Comments
This is a real problem
What tends to happen when the Land Registry reorganises is that it dumps its work further up the chain - to solicitors. This slows the process down and erodes the tiny margins made by conveyancers still further. To compound it the 2003 reforms meant that alot more is registrable - so they need more staff to keep the process together. Why are leases of 7 years registrable when it used to be 21 Look out for delays.