The government has refused to say when the public will be able to freely access information about who owns large plots of land across England and Wales.
Emma Reynolds, the previous secretary of state for the environment, announced in March that the paywall protecting large amounts of the Land Registry would be partly lifted. Campaigners called for this change in order to make large landowners more accountable, particularly for key areas such as river catchments, grouse moors and peatland.
But Reynolds did not put a date on when the paywall would be lifted. The Land Registry is an “arm’s length body”, a non-ministerial government department that falls under the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Defra pledge and consultation
In setting out the land use framework in March, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) pledged only that it would “work with HM Land Registry this year to provide access to free, spatial land ownership data for larger properties covering the vast majority of England and Wales, excluding almost all homeowners”.
This may require a further public consultation, in addition to the consultation that preceded the land use framework. In July, a spokesperson for the Land Registry said: “HM Land Registry is supportive of initiatives that promote the more effective use of land. However, our plans with regard to this are still at a very early stage, and a number of aspects will be subject to consultation before any firm decisions are made. As such, we are currently unable to comment on timelines, what may be released, the format, or any associated attributes. We anticipate being in a position to provide more of an update early next year.”
In August, a Land Registry spokesperson said it was not clear which parts of the Land Registry data would be made public, nor who might be allowed to access the data and by what means.
Campaigner calls for transparency
Guy Shrubsole, the environmental campaigner and author of Who Owns England?, said: “It’s ridiculous that in the 21st century the public are kept in the dark about who owns the land beneath our feet. This is data that will help councils build more homes, expose who’s polluting our rivers and help communities restore nature.”
Andy Burnham, who took over as prime minister from Keir Starmer this summer, has made localism a key priority of his premiership. Shrubsole said allowing people to see data on the ownership of land should be part of that agenda. “Burnham has come to power promising place-first politics, and to bring unaccountable government agencies to heel,” he said. “Who owns our land underpins any politics of place, and it’s high time the Land Registry was made to reveal this profoundly important information.”
Defra response
A Defra spokesperson said: “We are improving the transparency of land ownership data, and will provide free access to land ownership data for the vast majority of England, as we committed to in our land use framework. We are taking forward this commitment and will share further details as this work continues.”
