Government plans to privatise the Land Registry have brought a guarded response from Gloucestershire rural affairs specialists Bruton Knowles.
Set up in 1862 – the very same year Bruton Knowles was founded in Gloucester – the Land Registry records the ownership of land and property in England and Wales.
Planning specialist Paul Barton said one of the largest property databases in Europe was likely to appeal to a number of private investors.
“The proposed sell-off could be problematical for businesses involved in valuation, sales and development work and landowner searches.
“Farmers and landowners are finding themselves increasingly involved with local authorities and the utility companies as our towns and cities continue to expand.
“They are coming to us on a variety of issues including wayleave and easement along with compulsory purchase. We rely on the Land Registry to inform these decisions.”
Paul Barton said there appeared to be little appetite from the public to sell the Land Registry.
“It makes a considerable amount of money so it is not clear why it should be sold other than as a cash cow the Government is prepared to lead to market.
“There could be issues surrounding a private company having access to so much sensitive information, with different accountability measures in place compared to our own Government.”
“Whoever buys it will naturally be primarily motivated to try and make money out of it and might try selling data.”
Partner Bruce Fowler, Bruton Knowles’ Compensation Team Manager, is primarily responsible for delivering advice to clients with utility, transportation and regeneration projects.
He said: “Selling the Land Registry shouldn’t present an insurmountable problem to us, but we would like to know that there are caps on the cost of the information we might have to buy in daily and also that delivery standards will be kept up.
“Our concern is that Land Registry has made strides recently in presenting information to us in digital and GIS formats and there is more work to be done. It would be a shame if privatisation stopped this process.”
