Since launching the Risk Assessed Land Register (RALR) six months ago, Landmark Information Group, the UK’s leading supplier of digital mapping, property and environmental risk information, has captured the details of over 2,800 hectares of land (6,900+ acres) that has been assessed and deemed not to be liable for action under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990*. This is the equivalent of over 2,600 football pitches or almost eight Glastonbury festival sites, which have been logged in the RALR.
Launched in April, the RALR is a dataset unique to Landmark that greatly improves the efficiency of transactions for all parties, especially in the case of new developments, which can traditionally be problematic from a search perspective. Where the risk of contamination and/or pollution has been assessed, verified and ‘passed’ by specialists from Argyll Environmental, the data is fed into Landmark’s Land Register for future reference.
The data gathered is used to prevent the same site – and others located within the 25m zone of the original search – from requiring further action in the future, allowing Landmark to pass more conveyancing reports, first time with no manual intervention. Indeed, this is proving so popular that solicitors, housebuilders and estate agents are actively contributing information to the database to ensure the smoothest possible transactions.
Confirms Charles Krolik-Root, of Landmark Argyll, who led the creation and now oversees the maintenance and expansion of the database: “The Risk Assessed Land Register is a live database that catalogues locations across the country that have passed rigorous environmental risk assessments and are deemed to not be contaminated or at risk of action under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The Register is growing every month and this provides an excellent data source that will help to speed-up the conveyancing process for homebuyers.”
Continues Charles: “In just six months, the Register of verified land has already grown to over 2,800 hectares; this is the equivalent of 20 Hyde Parks; or, to put it another way, more than 125,000 plump blue whales! With more and more brownfield sites being used for development purposes, having a data bank that provides assurances of whether a site has been remediated or has passed an environmental risk assessment will prove to be an extremely useful resource. Not only will the conveyancing industry benefit, but also developers and other land and property professionals who wish to understand more about the risks related to a specific site.”
The Risk Assessed Land Register is updated and expanded fortnightly, combining genuine, rigorous environmental risk assessment with sophisticated technology. The Register currently covers over 2,800 UK postcode districts.
For more information click on www.landmark.co.uk, follow the team on Twitter, subscribe to the YouTube Channel or connect with via LinkedIn.
*Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_Protection_Act_1990#Part_IIA_-_Contaminated_land
This article was submitted to be published by Landmark Information Group as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.
