UK nixes Land Registry sale The UK government has ditched plans to privatise the Land Registry, the organisation that records property ownership in England and Wales. The organisation, which has done its work since 1862, was calculated to be worth between £6.2bn and £7.2bn ($8.2bn to $9.6bn) per year thanks to its enormous and authoritative database and …
Only an idiot (or a person with a vested interest) will bring a goose which lays golden eggs to the Sunday market.
The land registry is a guaranteed source of revenue for the crown. While selling it may help to improve the balance sheet (so it does not look like Greece) today, it is a very bad idea going forward.
Politicians are only in power for a short time, what do they care about the future? (beyond a nice retirement package) The corporations are the future, private ownership is not really part of Agenda 21 and a corp' with the records would make "small changes" to ownership and mop up of "lost title" so much easier.
They will try again soon.
..or to Alcatraz...
or, even further , Uranus, where most of their ideas originate..
..and £4 billion to renovate the Houses of Parliament? Yes, sell that to a foreign buyer instead Don't get me started..... too late...
Charge tourists £20 a head as a 'last chance to see ' opportunity before demolition, then see if they can get planning permission for a new Housing Estate on the site..
I'm sure Nicola Sturgeon wouldn't mind at all if the MPs all relocated North of the border and borrowed her buildings (deemed expensive at a few million!) pro tem...or maybe permanently, now there's a thought..
I'm in 2 minds about this.
On the one hand there are distinct advantages to moving the whole kit and kaboodle out of London to some nicer and more appropriate.
An old prison might do. (Is the redundant one in NI they used to film the Italian Job still standing?)
Or a suitable facility on an industrial estate - I wonder if Sports Direct or Amazon have any spare distribution whorehouses oops I mean warehouses going spare?
On the other hand - apparently the Victorian old lady's riddled with asbestos, the wiring's lethal and a fire hazard, its near the point about to collapse ...
CARRY ON!
"The politicians can be moved to Slough, Milton Keynes or Swindon."
I know your tongue was probably firmly in cheek when you said that, but there is a serious case for moving Parliament permanently to Birmingham, Leeds or Manchester etc. to stop some of the London-centric idiocy that goes on. Oh I know most MPs wouldn't like it, but some encouragement with a pointy stick would sort that.
Of course prospective cities would have to draw lots for the new location, the unfortunate loser with the shortest stick getting all those lovely MPs......
Too right;; As we discovered when we paid off our mortgage and I asked the bank for the deeds
Me: "When do we get the Deeds"
Bank: "You don't; They've been dematerialised" (their exact term)
Me: "What like in Star Trek"
Bank: "No they've all been digitised and sent to the Land Registry"
Me: "So there is no paper document showing the plot or my ownership"
Bank : "No"
I'm all for digital records, ease of search, conveyancing etc. but it would have been nice to have been told this was happening and have the option to have the original, even if legally useless, paper returned to us. Needless to say I can order a reprint from the LR for a fairly hefty fee £80 or so for a document which I believe was my property anyway..
AH, so this explains why there is a £75 "retrieval" fee for the deeds of my home when I mortgage is finally paid off but the bank will "store them for free" if I wish them to hang onto them for "security."
I really don't like the idea that there are no ownership documents for my largest asset that, should the Land Registry be he victim of some cyber-crime, could be called upon to resolve the matter if my home suddenly and mysteriously belongs to someone from Estonia who spells their name with 0s and xs...
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