Land ownership in the spotlight: HM Land Registry’s next steps on transparency

In a continuation of a recent trend at HM Land Registry (HMLR) of increasing transparency around land ownership, two further developments this week will be of interest to those who own and develop land in England and Wales.

Contractual Control Rights

As we summarised in our previous blog, April 2027 will see the implementation of a new transparency regime for agreements in England and Wales containing "contractual control rights” over land, such as options or rights of pre-emption.  When we last blogged on these forthcoming changes, a significant level of detail around how the registration system will operate and which rights will actually need to be registered was missing.  In a step forwards, HMLR has this week published a new Practice Guide providing conveyancers with some additional detail on how HMLR intends to implement the registration regime, together with worked examples in its contractual control rights scenarios offering guidance (albeit somewhat limited) on whether some of the most commonly occurring contractual control rights are likely to be registrable. 

The hypothetical scenarios confirm that the non-development exemption (where rights are granted exclusively for purposes that do not relate to future development resulting in the provision of one or more dwellings or a building with floor space of 100 square metres or more) is to be read narrowly and will rarely cover a speculative investment option. Clarity is also provided with regards to successive short leases (ie. the terms of which are individually less than 15 years) in that a chain of successive leases cannot “manufacture” a 15-year qualifying lease which then becomes registrable.  The transitional mechanics for rights granted between 8 June 2026 and 6 April 2027 have also been fleshed out with a worked timeline showing how protection by notice or restriction in the usual way can proceed before the digital service opens, with full information due by 6 October 2027.

What remains unaddressed, however, is a large part of the operational and commercial detail that developers and their advisers actually need to factor into current or future projects. HMLR has confirmed that conveyancers alone may submit the required information, but it has not yet published the questions conveyancers will be asked and the confirmations they will be required to provide as part of that process.  The digital submission service is still in production, and as such, clear technical guidance on the application process is still largely outstanding. 

What is clear is that conveyancers will need to be provided with sufficient information and documentary support by their clients in order to fulfil their duties.  Where submission of a plan is necessary to show the extent of the land affected by the contractual control right, this must be submitted as a digital file containing spatial data (that is, a computer-readable map showing the extent of the affected land) in an approved format: currently Shapefile or GeoJSON using British National Grid (BNG) coordinates.  As such, surveyors will need to be instructed in good time to prepare the necessary plans.  Furthermore, where the grantor of a right is an individual, their date and place of birth will also need to be submitted to ensure accurate identification (albeit this data will not be made public), and so should be requested as part of transaction due diligence.

This level of data submission goes above and beyond what is typically required on an application to register a notice or restriction on a title affected by a contractual control right and is another step towards the increased transparency that the government feels is necessary within the land registration system.

Consultation on future of access to HM Land Registry information

In further transparency news, HMLR has this week also launched a consultation seeking views on “a package of proposals to increase the public value of HMLR data and improve access to land ownership information”.

The consultation sets out five principal proposals: 

1. HMLR proposes publishing a new open dataset identifying the freehold owners of "significant land holdings" (illustratively, titles of between 0.5 and 20 hectares). This would extend free, searchable ownership data from around 30% to up to 95% of registered land in England and Wales. Unlike the current free data, which covers corporate owners only, the new dataset would also capture land held by individuals (although apparently excluding almost all home ownership). 
2. Public sector bodies would get cost-free access to all title registers for informational (non-transactional) purposes, subject to data-sharing controls. 
3. All users would get cost-free access to full title register content (not just ownership data) for properties already within the UK/Overseas Companies dataset and the proposed significant land holdings dataset, subject to proportionate limits such as restrictions on bulk downloading and automated extraction. 
4. A new public interest access framework would let researchers, journalists and regulators apply case-by-case for enhanced access, including to residential titles, where they can evidence a specific public interest use. 
5. Accelerating completion of the register, including potentially linking eligibility for public land-use payment schemes to registration status, given around 10% of land remains unregistered. 

For clients that hold land in England and Wales through overseas holding structures, these proposals will undoubtedly increase transparency risk. Overseas corporate owners are already captured in HMLR's existing Overseas Companies dataset, and the consultation proposes extending cost-free access to the full title register content (not merely the owner's name) for all such titles, making details like registered office/correspondence addresses, charges, leases and other register entries freely accessible rather than available only via a paid-for copy of the register. 

For structures using individual or trustee ownership above the proposed area threshold, the new significant land holdings dataset would, for the first time, make it possible to search for an individual's land holdings by name free of charge, materially increasing findability compared with the current position, where a fee must be paid and some effort is required to search title by title. 

The public interest access framework could also give interested parties a clearer route to residential and other title data not otherwise covered by the free datasets, which is relevant to beneficial owners who rely on the Register of Overseas Entities and the current limited availability of HMLR data for privacy which is often necessary for reasons of personal safety. 

The consultation does, however, invite views on new safeguards and suppression powers — potentially allowing individuals to apply to have specific titles restricted from public access where there is clear evidence of a risk such as personal safety, harassment, domestic abuse or national security concerns. 

Given the scale of the proposed transparency increase, clients with overseas or individually-held structures may wish to respond to the consultation, particularly on the scope of the public interest access framework, and the design of the suppression/safeguards regime, before the consultation closes on 22 December 2026.