New £26 million Fund to Help Councils Migrate Local Land Charges
HM Treasury is providing additional financial support for councils migrating their local land charges service to HM Land Registry.
HM Treasury has today (10 May) launched a £26 million fund to help deliver a faster property search service for homebuyers in England and Wales through a national Local Land Charges Register.
Every local authority in England and Wales, with the exception of county councils, is required to hold a local land charges register that records obligations affecting properties within their administrative area. The first transfer was in summer 2018.
HM Treasury have an ambition to migrate all local authorities in England and Wales onto the central register by 2025. This new funding will help make that target more achievable.
Local authorities who transfer their local land charges data to the Local Land Charges (LLC) Register within an agreed timescale will receive transition payments. In addition, they will continue to receive existing burdens payments. This means the overall financial support available to local authorities is now more than £40 million.
Karina Singh, HM Land Registry Director of Transformation, said:
“Research suggests that 6% of property transactions fail, costing between £700 and £2,700 per transaction. By enabling earlier access to LLC information these costs should reduce, making the conveyancing process better for all parties.”
All local authorities who migrate their LLC service to the central register will qualify for a payment when they meet their scheduled milestones.
Further information can be found on GOV.UK’s Local Land Charges Programme page.
Idox is one of the programme partners along with:
- PA Consulting
- Northgate
- Agile Applications Ltd
- DEF Software Ltd
