Privatisation of Land Registry to go ahead, Government confirms

A new Neighbourhood Planning and Infrastructure Bill which will enable the Land Registry to be sold off was announced in yesterday’s Queen’s Speech.

Confirming the privatisation of the Land Registry as going ahead, government notes about the Bill say the sale would “support the delivery of a modern, digitally-based land registration service that will benefit the Land Registry’s customers, such as people buying or selling their homes”.

The Bill is overall flagged up as supporting the Government’s ambition to deliver 1m new homes while protecting “those areas that we value most including the Green Belt”.

It will also “further empower local communities” in planning homes and infrastructure.

Neighbourhood planning will be strengthened, while new developments will be speeded up.

Local authorities will not be able to insist on pre-planning conditions being in place before work starts, unless these conditions are absolutely necessary.

Compulsory purchase law is also to be tidied up after years of conflicting cases and outcomes.

In future, owners of properties which are, for example, needed to make way for infrastructure or new housing estates will receive the market value of their properties as of now, and without taking into account the value of the scheme underlying the need for compulsory purchase.

This could have winners and losers. The winners will be those home owners whose homes are blighted by, for example, new high-speed railway lines and complain that their properties will be compulsorily bought at a pittance. The new law would mean that no account would be taken of the blight.

Losers could be those whose properties stand in the way of large-scale housing schemes to which they object. Such owners could in future have to weigh up getting far less via compulsory purchase than if they were to sell at full development land value at an earlier stage to a developer.

The Bill will also enable the independent National Infrastructure Commission to be established on a statutory basis.

x

Email the story to a friend



9 Comments

  1. Blue

    Brilliant.  They will probably put G4S in charge.

    Report
  2. AgencyInsider

    What will future governments do when there is nothing left to sell?

    Report
    1. Bix006

      Rescue it using tax payers money?

      Report
  3. Rob Hailstone

    If like most you are against LR privatisation, it will only take a few minutes for you and your colleagues to sign the petition:

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

    Report
  4. Will

    Asset Strippers!

    Report
  5. mrharvey

    Is there anything the government won’t do? Goodbye independent body, hello new boss with targets to hit and agendas to meet.

    Report
  6. JamesFerguson07

    The government seem to think privatisation of the Land Registry is in the bag. We need as many people as possible to respond to the consultation to prove them wrong.

    http://budurl.com/LandRegConsultation

    We helped stop the privatisation attempt 2 years ago. We can do it again.

    Report
  7. Robert May

    Once again the ‘Nanna Osborne’  listing has been taken down by Ebay.   Ebay commented “it infringes their  terms and conditions to sell Grandmothers. If ‘Pawnitgeorge lists her again well will suspend his account”

    Report
  8. greg

    Expect a charge to see how much a house sold for. Could be trouble for Nethouseprices and co.

     

    Report
X

You must be logged in to report this comment!

Comments are closed.

Thank you for signing up to our newsletter, we have sent you an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Additionally if you would like to create a free EYE account which allows you to comment on news stories and manage your email subscriptions please enter a password below.