Land Registry upbeat on year of achievement

Land Registry, the government department responsible for land registration in England and Wales, gives an upbeat assessment of its work over the past 12 months in its Annual Report and Accounts 2007/8 published today, Thursday 21 August 2008.

Introducing the report, Chief Land Registrar and Chief Executive Peter Collis concedes that the recent slump in the property market is a challenge for Land Registry. While the first six months of the year saw record intakes, this was followed by a slowdown in transactions as the year drew to a close. But Mr Collis says he is confident Land Registry will "cope with any eventuality" and points to the department's diversification beyond core registration and information services.

In addition to the monthly House Price Index, widely regarded as the most authoritative guide to the trend in prices, Land Registry's education and training programmes are gaining in popularity, while its commercial services are adding value for business customers.

Gross income from added value product service sales has increased from £1.8 million in the year to March 2007 to £3.2 million in the year to March 2008. These funds can be reinvested in future services or used to improve the quality of existing services. Work on electronic services also continued apace in 2007/8, with the introduction of a new system for attaching electronic signatures to documents, paving the way for the electronic lodgement of applications with deeds attached.

Coverage of the Land Register has increased from 48 per cent of England and Wales three years ago to 64 per cent today, with the Longleat Estate and parts of Snowdonia and Salisbury Plain among the new registrations completed during the year.