MILTON Keynes Council has migrated its local land charges data on to HM Land Registry’s central digital register. Now customers looking to access LLC data in the area will need to use the Search for Local Land Charges service on the government website gov.uk.
Most local land charges are restrictions or prohibitions on the use of the property and LLC searches are normally required in the property buying process.
These charges most commonly take the form of planning permissions but can also cover listed buildings, conservation areas or other protected statuses. A LLC search will reveal whether a property is subject to a charge.
Through migrating this LLC data on to HM Land Registry’s centralised register, customers in Milton Keynes will see quicker property transactions and have access to a fully digital dataset to help support the local housing market and investment decisions.
Customers will also benefit from:
- The length of time to receive results reducing from days or weeks to seconds;
- Information in a standardised, easy-to-read, digital format;
- Online access available 24/7;
- Properties searchable by text-based address and by geographical location;
- Added spatial information offering greater assurance about the boundaries of each charge;
- Official search results offering unlimited repeat searches for six months and a search history dashboard that gives access to previous searches.
This migration is the culmination of months of work by both Milton Keynes Council and HM Land Registry’s LLC team. With the added challenges that coronavirus posed for local authorities, the delivery of this migration has added significance.
Allison Bradbury, head of Local Land Charges implementation at HM Land Registry, said: “Resilience has always been at the heart of creating a local land charges service fit for a digital age.
“With the challenges that lockdown has brought for local authorities and the wider economy it is more important than ever that homebuyers and the conveyancing sector have reliable access to LLC data for their area.
“Customers in Milton Keynes will benefit from a fully accessible service going forward as local economies look to recover and build for the future”
Milton Keynes Council leader Pete Marland said: “We are proud to be among one of the first local authorities to move our land charges and personal searches function on to a new national digital database.
“This is a testament to the rigorous processes that the team have put in place and the new database will help us improve the service even further.”
HM Land Registry’s LLC service makes it easier and quicker for property developers to make informed decisions about their projects due to the immediate availability of LLC data. This also allows organisations to use the data in new and innovative ways, driving innovation in the UK property sector.
For more information, or for any queries about HM Land Registry’s LLC service, email llcproject@landregistry.gov.uk
