The detail from the budget has hardly been considered but in what appears to be a very timely release Land Registry has reminded us all that it started its cost cutting this March. This is good news for conveyancers as hopefully it means that fee order costs wont have to rise to much to cover over the fact that this cost reduction has been much slower than the private sector. Most conveyancers in private practice have had to remove a significant cost out of their businesses two years ago and have been operating leanly since.
Hopefully in a move that is better late than never these changes will protect conveyancers from a significant increase in the fee order table which would ultimately have to be passed onto consumers in what is already a very fragile market.
Land Registry has confirmed that its Stevenage and Tunbridge Wells offices will close by 30 June 2011 and its Portsmouth office by 28 February 2011. A reduced presence will be retained in Portsmouth until 31 March 2013.
Land Registry announced these changes on 17 March 2010, as part of its Accelerated Transformation Programme which included the closure of its Stevenage, Tunbridge Wells and Portsmouth offices and the general reduction of the number of its offices from 17 to 14.
From 1 October 2010 Stevenage, Tunbridge Wells and Portsmouth offices will no longer operate as "Proper Offices". Paper and fax applications to be received on or after 1 October 2010 should not be sent to any of these three offices, but to the appropriate proper office as designated by the Land (Proper Office) Order 2010 which has been laid today.
A table of designated offices follows:
Administrative area Former proper New proper
office office
Barking & Dagenham Stevenage Telford
Brighton & Hove Portsmouth Coventry
City of London Stevenage Wales
East Hampshire Portsmouth Weymouth
East Sussex Portsmouth Coventry
Hackney Stevenage Wales
Havant Portsmouth Weymouth
Havering Stevenage Birkenhead
Hertfordshire Stevenage Leicester
Inner and Middle Temple Stevenage Wales
Isle of Wight Portsmouth Weymouth
Islington Stevenage Wales
Kent Tunbridge Wells Nottingham
Medway Tunbridge Wells Nottingham
Newham Stevenage Telford
Portsmouth Portsmouth Weymouth
Redbridge Stevenage Birkenhead
Tower Hamlets Stevenage Wales
Waltham Forest Stevenage Wales
West Sussex Portsmouth Durham
