The Land Registry’s proposed takeover of the local land charges function from councils would lead to a ‘more fragmented, more costly and less reliable service’, concerned council officers have argued.
In a letter to minister for business and enterprise, Michael Fallon, the Local Land Charges Institute urged him to reject the proposal.
Institute chair Amanda Renshaw and vice-chair Peter Audin wrote: ‘You must decide whether you want to discard current publicly-funded IT systems, which in the vast majority of cases perform perfectly satisfactorily, and commit tens of millions of pounds of public money to a major IT project whose success would be far from assured, the need for which is unproven and through which Land Registry intends providing less information to its customers than local authorities currently do.
‘Land Registry has failed to demonstrate unequivocally its understanding of the service provided and the vital part this plays in the housing market and wider economy.
‘This proposal does not demonstrate an improvement or enhancement to the service.
‘If you are not 100% satisfied that Land Registry can provide this service more effectively, more accurately and more cheaply than local authorities currently do, then you must reject this proposal.’
