Impactful, future-proof and deliverable – the central digital Local Land Charges Register

By Karina Singh, Director of Transformation, HM Land Registry

The Local Land Charges (LLC) programme is the most ambitious geospatial data transformation ever attempted by a UK government. Data with different standards and formats from 336 local authorities is being brought together into a single digital, geospatial dataset, the Local Land Charges Register. Anyone involved in buying, selling, managing or lending on property can access this information in a standard format for a standard fee, instantly.

A transformation on this scale is complex. Assessing, categorising and transforming data in various unstructured formats, in systems that are frequently out of date (remember microfiche?), is time consuming and intricate. We are also transforming the service that customers receive, working closely with English and Welsh local authorities to streamline and standardise the way conveyancers and property buyers access the information.

Dealing with complexity brings innovation. This is HM Land Registry’s first new register in 90 years, and the only one that is digitally native. We have tried, tested, discarded, adopted and scaled up several approaches over the past few years. We’ve now found a model that should be successful for most local authorities and systems we are working with.

Our work with partners across government and the private sector has allowed the sharing of expertise. Our Geospatial Commission partners recognise that the LLC programme is a pathfinder for other data transformations at scale. To align our agendas to make the conveyancing and planning processes more digital, we regularly share information with colleagues at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government.

Modernising the LLC service supports several government agendas, such as helping the country Build Back Better and levelling up. It is helping to speed up and streamline the planning process and unlock the data property buyers, conveyancers, developers, lenders and the emerging property technology (PropTech) sector need to identify growth areas. It is also an important key in the Geospatial Commission’s strategy to exploit place-based data, unlocking significant economic, social and environmental opportunities offered by location data.

In line with HM Land Registry’s strategy of opening up and sharing our data for the benefit of the property market, we are currently exploring how we can best provide others in the property market with access to the LLC dataset, to exploit opportunities and decrease risk in this £7 trillion sector.

Given the significant benefits a centralised and standardised LLC dataset can bring, ministers are keen that we proceed at pace. They have set us a four-year delivery ambition, backed by a £26m transition payment scheme, to help local authorities migrate their service within this timeframe. 

The programme is ambitious, both in scale and pace. It is also high risk. But, to HM Land Registry, the benefits it can provide homebuyers, property professionals, lenders, investors and the Government’s levelling up agenda are worth the risk.

As buyers rushed to make purchases before the stamp duty holiday ended, the benefit of the central LLC Register was clear. Instant access to search information is helping thousands of property-buyers to avoid costly delays and improve their conveyancing experience.