Guidance

Register local authority and other public sector land and property

Updated 12 November 2019

Applies to England

HM Land Registry is working with local authorities and other public bodies in England to register:

• all public land in areas of highest housing need by the end of 2020
• the rest of public sector land by the end of 2025

Currently:

• 13% of the land mass of England and Wales is not registered
• 44 administrative areas have less than 80% of their land mass registered

1. Check if your local authority is in a priority area

If the local authority you work for is on the list of the top 51 areas of highest housing need (shown in Comprehensive registration programme: priority areas for land registration, see document named ‘Comprehensive registration programme: priority areas for land registration’), please contact us so we can help you register any unregistered land or properties in your administrative area.

If you are not on the list of the top 51 areas of highest housing need, but have priority land or property for housing development, please contact us.

2. How HM Land Registry can help local authorities and other public bodies

The Government’s Housing White Paper Fixing Our Broken Housing Market announced that HM Land Registry would aim to achieve comprehensive land registration by 2030. This will include registering all publicly held land in the areas of greatest housing need in England by 2020. The rest of publicly owned land in England and Wales will need to be registered by 2025 or sooner.

We would like to understand your housing development plans and identify what registration activity is required to support these.

We will work with you to assess how much of your land and property portfolio is unregistered, and develop a registration plan.

3. Benefits of registration for local authorities and other public bodies

Transparency

Registration of your entire land and property portfolio supports the Transparency Code obligations where local authorities and other public bodies must publish details of all land and building assets.

Ease

Registration establishes proof of ownership and simplifies the process of buying and selling property, making transactions simpler, faster and cheaper.

Efficiency

Registration helps effective asset management for local authority and other public bodies, in line with audit requirements. All title (ownership) information is kept on HM Land Registry’s Land Register database, reducing the need to store old and often unclear deeds. The register can be viewed quickly and securely online.

Protection

There is no better way to safeguard ownership of land and property than by registering your land with us. We will notify you if anyone else attempts to make a claim on a piece of registered land (adverse possession) so you have some protection against loss.

Security

If the owner of a registered property suffers loss due to fraud against their property, they are eligible for state-backed compensation.

4. Registration fees

If you are making a voluntary first registration, there is a 25% reduction in fees. The registration fee depends on the value of the property being registered. There is a maximum fee for large scale first registrations.

5. Manage your land and property portfolio

Our commercial services can help manage your land and property portfolio. These include:

• ownership validation
• spatial data
• mortgage services
• property portfolio management
• risk management

6. Contact

To discuss the registration of land owned by your public body or local authority please contact:

Public Sector Engagement Team

Email PublicSectorEngagementTeam@landregistry.gov.uk

Phone 0300 006 7001