£26m to help accelerate property search service in England and Wales

£26 million has been set aside to help deliver a faster property search service for homebuyers in England and Wales through a national Local Land Charges Register.

Last December the Government set out its ambition to migrate all local authorities in England and Wales onto the central register by 2025. This funding makes that target more achievable and looks to make the home buying process quicker and simpler.

Local authorities who transfer their local land charges data to our 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.

"Research suggests that 6% of property transactions fail, costing between £700 and £2,700 per transaction," said Karina Singh, HM Land Registry Director of Transformation. "By enabling earlier access to LLC information these costs should reduce, making the conveyancing process better for all parties. We want to help buyers get the information they need, in a faster and simpler manner."

All local authorities who migrate their LLC service to the central register will qualify for a payment when they meet their scheduled milestones. This will give them greater financial certainty that they can meet incidental costs, when seamlessly moving their service to the LLC Register.