Free Land Registry Access Plan Meets Landowner Resistance, Campaigners Warn

The UK government wants to lift the paywall on the Land Registry for the first time — and campaigners say England's biggest landowners may try to kill the plan before it becomes law.

On Tuesday, the government set out proposals to open public access to information on who owns England's land. Ministers argue that transparency would help the UK build more houses, protect nature and improve strategic planning. The plans are now open to public consultation for eight weeks.

At stake is a database where at least 10% of land ownership in England is currently unknown, according to a government spokesperson. That gap has real consequences for practitioners: councils, developers and infrastructure planners who can't see who holds title must work around an opaque system that has persisted, in one form or another, since the Domesday Book.

What does the plan actually change?

The proposals would, for the first time, allow public sector bodies — including government departments and local authorities — to access Land Registry information free of charge. That's a direct cost and speed change for councils trying to identify sites for new homes, schools, hospitals, environmental assets, water infrastructure and public transport.

A new free public dataset would identify the owners of significant land-holdings. The government says this would cover the vast majority of land in England and Wales, while excluding ordinary homeowners. So if you're picturing a register of every semi in Leeds — that's not what this is. It targets large holdings, the kind that shape development and land-use decisions.

There's a second tier, too. More sensitive information could become available to investigators, civil society groups and regulators — but only where they can demonstrate a clear public interest. That's a gated channel, not an open firehose, and it's where much of the negotiation over the next eight weeks is likely to focus.

The Guardian has previously reported internal rifts between the government and the Land Registry itself over how far to open the agency to scrutiny. The Land Registry is an "arm's length body" under the oversight of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, but it acts largely independently. In practice, that means the ministry can't simply order the register open — it has to bring the agency along.

Who's lining up on each side?

Guy Shrubsole, author of Who Owns England?, urged the public to engage with the consultation. "The government has put forward a bold but sensible proposal to open up the Land Registry and reveal who owns the vast majority of land in England and Wales – a question that goes back to the Domesday Book and has always been entwined with wealth and power," he said.

"But the country's biggest landowners may still try to scupper these plans at the last hurdle. It's up to us peasants to stage the most gentle of revolts, by submitting our views to this public consultation."

Campaigners broadly welcomed the move. Roger Mortlock, chief executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, framed it as a resource question. "Our finite land supply is facing an unprecedented squeeze. Making it easier to find out who owns what will help us make the most of every hectare, whether for homes, infrastructure, food or nature's recovery," he said.

The landowning side is already drawing its battle lines. Gavin Lane, president of the Country Land and Business Association, which represents landowners and rural businesses, warned of the risks of opening the register further.

"Making more personal information public could leave families vulnerable to fraud and other risks, especially as AI makes it easier to steal and misuse people's identities," Lane said. "Greater transparency should not come at the expense of people's privacy, security and safety."

That's the argument that has kept large parts of the register closed for years — and many landowners have been reluctant to have their holdings made public, and are likely to fight the proposals.

What does this change for practitioners?

For local authorities and public bodies, free access means the difference between paying for piecemeal title searches and mapping ownership systematically. The government's stated bet is that cheaper, faster ownership data translates into more land identified for housing and infrastructure — and, in its framing, better decisions for both the economy and nature.

A government spokesperson said: "We are improving access to the Land Registry's database to help fill in the gaps on who really owns land in England – with at least 10% currently unknown. By driving up land transparency we can make smarter decisions on building the homes and infrastructure we need, while delivering a crucial win-win for the economy and nature."

For landowners, the change means their holdings would become visible in a free public dataset for the first time — and the CLA is arguing that visibility carries fraud and privacy costs that grow as AI-assisted identity theft gets easier.

The eight-week window

The outcome now turns on the consultation response. Shrubsole's read is blunt: "Centuries of secrecy over who owns our land might finally be coming to an end – but only if enough members of the public respond to this consultation."

What does this change for anyone watching the UK property and planning market? Potentially a lot — a free ownership dataset covering the majority of England and Wales would compress the time and cost of site identification for councils and developers alike. But the file isn't closed. With the Land Registry itself divided on how far to open, and the CLA mobilising around privacy and fraud concerns, the next eight weeks will decide whether the paywall falls or the last hurdle holds.