Land Registry privatisation consultation closes today...

The government's consultation on the proposed privatisation of the Land Registry closes today.

Interested parties have had since March 24 to give their views on the proposals, which are part of the government's wider project to raise an additional £5 billion in corporate and financial asset sales by 2020.

A number of high profile organisations have spoken out against the sale of the Land Registry.

The Conveyancing Association expressed concerns as to whether a private Land Registry would maintain its current service levels or deliver innovation.

Earlier this week the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its response to the consultation.

The CMA suggested that if sold the Land Registry might degrade access to its data in order to weaken competition to its own commercial products.

While the consultation period has been running, there's also been an online petition against privatisation of the Land Registry, which has now received over 256,000 signatures.

The petition will today be delivered to Business Secretary Sajid Javid at 2:30pm by campaigners outside the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

A previous attempt to sell the Land Registry by the last government was halted by Vince Cable and the Liberal Democrats.

The Save the Land Registry Campaign says that when privatisation of the Land Registry was last consulted by the government, an overwhelming 95% of responses disagreed with the proposals.

The Land Registry employs almost 5,000 staff and has recorded the ownership of all land and property in England and Wales since the 1860s.

The government says it aims to publish a response to this consultation period within the next three months.

Keith pattinson
10 January 2023 08:28 AM

Privatisation results in loss of control.
The end result like water would be passed from French to Chinese,with increased costs.
Privatisation is the wrong word when Government control is essential.
The information could be linked to peoples tax returns and give Inland Revenue an individuals "balance sheet".
It is sad that we will even sell the National Health Service to probably USA.....as already some hospitals,ambulances etc are doing the work.
National services should be owned by the people who employ the Government.
Once privatised lost forever............and money frittered away,into bodies that pillage our country,take more for their own benefit,as we did in 19th Century when Britain was world power,not a subsidiary of another nation.