In February, Matthew Pennycook, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning, wrote to the Board Chair of His Majesty's Land Registry (HMLR) to set out the Government's priorities for HMLR over the coming year.
The 'Chair's letter' reveals an interesting insight into the overall structure of central government governance and policy agendas, and the related 'family' of arm's length bodies which form part of this wider framework of policy implementation - in particular, it reminds us that:
- HMLR now answers to the Secretary of State and Ministers from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), and a Non-Executive Director from MHCLG sits on HMLRs Board; and
- High quality, rapid, effective and innovative HMLR operation is seen by MHCLG/the Government as one of the keys required to unlock it achieving the ambitious 1.5 million new homes milestone during the current Parliament.
The letter included the following objectives:
- Supporting delivery of national policy through the following
HMLR strategic priorities:
- Digitising data and modernising systems, including digitising and further transforming the home buying and selling process;
- Enhancing transparency and unlocking the power of property data, and an acceleration of registering existing unregistered land (currently 11% of all land in England and Wales). In this connection, Part 11 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, which has yet to be implemented, sets out powers for the Government to require disclosure of "information" relating to land ownership/control for specified permitted purposes. This would involve the identification of persons holding "relevant contractual rights" in land (a "contractual control" purpose), achieved through disclosure to HMLR the details of promotion, option and pre-emption agreements as well as conditional contracts. We are tracking this and will work with clients to develop their approach towards these new requirements as and when they emerge;
- Reforming HMLRs pricing model in a way that is fair to customers but also sustainable and allows for re-investment in the required digital modernisations;
- Supporting Leasehold and Commonhold Reform – again, the focus here is on digitising and also collaborating with MHCLG to successfully deliver the Government's objectives, particularly regarding the increased focus on commonhold ownership; and
- Maximising the value of property data development, to facilitate the use of HMLR data in analysis of policies with a land and property dimension – these objectives are to be secured in line with the objectives of the UK Geospatial Strategy and the development of a National Data Library, and in collaboration with MHCLG and other Government departments.
- Delivering on HMLR's overall business plan and driving operational excellence through its KPIs – for real estate practitioners and particularly those in the affordable housing and wider living sector(s), this really boils down to ensuring that the timeliness of HMLR services is improved, and that the current backlog/timeframe for completion of applications is reduced. It has been suggested that this latter aspect could have received greater prominence in the Minister's letter.
The letter was responded to, formally, by HMLR's Chair (Neil Sachdev) in March, where he highlighted the outcomes of the Spending Review process as being key for HMLR - in terms of securing the required level of investment in return for HMLR's executive teams meeting the objectives and implementation of the required technical modernisations referred to above – so it will be interesting to follow how this plays out.
Gov.UK - HM Land Registry Chair's letter
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