Public and Commercial Services Union

LR/MB/09/09

Land Registry briefing to PCS members

LR Campaign Strategy:An Alternative Vision for Land Registry

Contents

Campaign Message from PCS Land Registry Group

Introduction to “An Alternative Vision for the Land Registry”

Executive Summary of “An Alternative Vision for the Land Registry”

Land Registry campaign message

This briefing has been produced to update all members on the PCS campaign to defend jobs, offices and an effective publically run Land Registry. Please take the time to read the contents and to support the campaign.

The PCS document ‘An Alternative Vision (AV) for Land Registry’ provides valuable arguments for Land Registry remaining in the public sector and returning to a public sector ethos. It also helps to oppose management's view that there is not enough work for staff and makes the case for completion of the land register. The fact is that after nearly 150 years of land registration, less than 70% of land in England of Wales is registered. There is clearly still plenty of work to do.

PCS members will recognise that in reality they are no less busy now than they were during the property boom of recent years, yet management’s bogus accounting mechanisms and Key performance Indicators deem us to be inefficient. The AV argues for an alternative measure of efficiency based on public service rather than crude market responsive KPI’s, one which would recognise the importance of register development, data integrity, QIF and other essential investment work.

Crucially, these arguments will supplement the PCS campaign in opposition to LR Management’s Accelerated Transformation Programme (ATP) proposals, providing an alternative to cutting jobs, closing offices and privatising LR functions.

It is important however that that it is not seen as a replacement for the main PCS campaign or the need for us all to unite under the banner of our union. Instead, the AV is the basis on which we launch an active campaign against management’s slash and burn tactics.

The PCS campaign in opposition to the ATP proposals has got off to an excellent start, with record attendances at balloting meetings across all Land Registry offices. At these meetings, members have made it clear that they are not prepared to accept attacks on our jobs and offices without a fight and are prepared to stand up and be counted. This has been further endorsed by a massive vote in the ballot rejecting the ATP proposals and supporting the PCS bargaining position of no office closures, no job losses, no outsourcing and calling for a return to genuine public service. This strong mandate will now support your PCS negotiators during the formal ATP consultation period.

Whilst industrial action will always be the last resort, we have made it clear to Land Registry management, that if they are not prepared to listen to our reasoned arguments, we will not hesitate to ballot for and deliver industrial action capable of defeating their ATP proposals.

We believe that we have (underpinned by the AV) the moral and intellectual arguments to defeat the ATP. Crucially, we also have a robust strategy in place supporting our bargaining, campaigning and industrial work. Most importantly, however, we have a united membership who are prepared to do whatever proves necessary to defend our jobs, offices and working conditions.

In conclusion, Land Registry is a vital public service. It is currently run by a Board with a failed business ethos, not fit for a 21st century public service. Our alternative vision calls for the very necessary measures to enable us to complete land registration for England and Wales and to ensure that the data we hold is cleansed of errors and inaccuracy.

A complete land register will allow for detailed planning for the future use of our land – socially, economically and environmentally.

What you can do to support the campaign:

• Recruit a colleague
• Get actively involved in the campaign
• Read union leaflets
• Attend members meetings
• Write to and lobby your local MP
• Vote in ballots and support any call for industrial action
• Attend PCS Land Registry Parliamentary lobby on the 20th January 2010
• Join your local campaign team
• Sign the PCS online and paper petitions
• Any questions or suggestions please speak to your local rep

Each and every strand of our campaign is vital to protect our jobs, offices and the public service we provide.

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Introduction – An Alternative Vision for the Land Registry

This booklet ‘An Alternative Vision for the Land Registry’, is a timely contribution to the debate about the future of Land registration in England and Wales. This follows on from ‘The Case for Civil and Public Services – an Alternative Vision’ published in 2005. Against the backdrop of the biggest market failure in living memory, the Land Registry is under review by government. The scale of the economic crisis has produced a new consensus in favour of even deeper cuts in public expenditure. This pamphlet is a small but we hope useful addition to the PCS campaign to expose the fallacies behind these arguments and to restate the social and economic case for public services.

In looking at the work of PCS members in the Land Registry it argues that a reliable and transparent system is best achieved through:

• Promoting the wider public interest in the current debates around reform of the conveyancing process
• A comprehensive register of all land and property interests – a Doomsday Book for the 21st Century
• Raising the issue of land ownership and the need for improved regulation, access and use
• Greater public scrutiny of the register and working with public bodies to better utilise Land Registry data/services in the public interest
• Land Registry providing good employment conditions and properly funded and staffed to fulfil its public service role.

The Alternative Vision aims to complement PCS campaigns in the Land Registry. Government and Land Registry management offer job cuts, office closures and a discredited business efficiency model. In rejecting this flawed approach, the booklet can be a useful campaign tool in building wider public support for an Alternative Vision for the Land Registry; one that respects the interests of its workforce and the public interest they serve.

The Alternative Vision is based on the work of academics Professor Roger Seifert and Mike Ironside. It considers the economics of land by looking at ownership, regulation and the consequences of the exclusively market driven approach by government and senior Land Registry management. It makes a case for radical reform and concludes by arguing for the Land Registry as a public body that recognises PCS as the independent and democratic voice of the workforce. The booklet also includes a number of related articles.
Land Registry management are fond of describing the staff as the organisation’s greatest resource. As the case studies testify, the targets culture and business model have damaged the quality of service and created stressful conditions for the skilled but ever declining workforce. The first related article is the response of the trade unions to an earlier Quinquennial Review of Land Registry (1999) containing arguments for the Land Registry remaining as a public service that still hold true today.

The contribution from Pat Budu, PCS Research Officer, tracks the impacts of new public management methods upon the civil service over nearly three decades. This is the broader policy framework within which senior LR management have implemented a stream of new management initiatives largely imported from the business world.

The next article comes from a PCS member and an officer of the Labour Land Campaign, Heather Wetzel. It argues for a fairer tax system and the sustainable use of land; an important element of any serious reform of land registration.

Finally we attach an essay by the author of ‘Who Owns Britain: The Hidden Facts of Land Ownership’, Kevin Cahill. Collecting reliable data on who owns the land should be straight forward as there are records for all land bought or sold since 1925. Yet it took Kevin Cahill’s groundbreaking work to reveal that between 30-50% of the total acreage of England and Wales is unregistered.

There was a time when it was possible to know who owned the land. The Return of Owners of Land (1872) collected a full inventory of land ownership from parish records, often centuries old, which are now lost. This important document revealed massive inequalities in landed wealth and has been largely hidden from history ever since.Through extensive research Kevin Cahill’s book shows these inequalities remain today and why land ownership deserves wider public scrutiny and debate.
Land Registry reform is long overdue.

This booklet maps out an alternative to the market driven and short term approach of government and the LR management board. We hope all those interested in the ownership, regulation, access and use of land will find its contents a compelling read. We hope it can assist the efforts of PCS members in the Land Registry to defend a vital public service and help stimulate a long overdue public debate about land reform in the UK.

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Executive Summary of “An Alternative Vision for the Land Registry”

Land Registry and its staff are facing some sharp issues. In the depths of the current recession the volume and character of work has changed dramatically. This poses serious challenges to Land Registry management’s business process model, and raises important questions about the future role and structure of Land Registry. It also presents some opportunities to revisit the very purpose of land registration within an economy with a pattern of land ownership that is mixed but that is also dominated by a relatively small number of very large landowners.

The economics of land

This section considers the importance of land ownership and land use. Land is where people live, work, and play, and it is also a source of income. It is a factor of production and as such it plays a major part in the accumulation of both public and private wealth.
If the owners of land have the right to determine how that land is used this can result in land being used in ways that are environmentally harmful, or it can result in land being not used at all. Furthermore, it can mean that people have insufficient access to land for habitation and recreation. Planned use of land is fundamental to a democratic society.
Registration of land is essential for comprehensive regulation of land use, but it is estimated that approximately 30% of the land in England and Wales is not registered with the Land Registry.

Regulating land

Here we discuss the mechanisms available for regulating the use of land in the interests of the population. A tax on land would have some advantages, but further regulation is essential to protect communities from the vagaries of markets. We argue that the individual choices of land-sellers and land-buyers, historically rooted in the feudal distribution of land, result in inequality, in inefficient land use, and in inadequate infrastructure.
We argue the case for an open and fair system of bureaucratic controls over the use of land. The Land Registry would be an important part of that system.

The market for land and its use

Markets are dominated by those who have market power. So the use of land is driven by those who own it, those who have the cash to rent or to buy it, and those who provide market-facilitating services. The result is that we have land uses and property ‘developments’ that we do not want, demands for decent housing and community facilities are not met, and those with neither land nor cash end up homeless. The case for a strong system of state regulation was clearly confirmed by the collapse of the housing market and the failure of the banking system.

Reforming the Land Registry

Land Registry’s main function is to keep a register of title to freehold and leasehold land, thus enabling security of title and confident dealings in land. For Land Registry management, the main areas of business development include e-conveyancing and the provision of consultancy services to organisations involved in property markets. A comprehensive register of all land is seen as desirable, but is to be achieved through a gradual voluntary process rather than through compulsion.

As with the rest of the Civil Service, Land Registry is required to achieve the ‘efficiency savings’ required after the Gershon Review. We argue the case for a broad view of efficiency based on the successful planned use of land for socially desirable purposes, and against the use of narrow market-transaction criteria to measure efficiency. We can have a system that enables people to buy and sell land very efficiently while at the same time having an extremely inefficient use of land itself.

Thus the Land Registry should not be seen merely as a market facilitator, meeting the needs of buyers and sellers; it could be playing an important role in a state system of planning and controlling the use of land.

The role of Civil Servants

Such a system depends on the employment of a particular kind of workforce to deliver it. Public trust is essential, so a workforce of well-trained civil servants is required to apply national standards, accountable through transparent management systems. The employment culture should be one of serving the public rather than one of selling services to individual customers. Pay and conditions of service, including the issues of workforce planning and workforce restructuring, play a vital role in the establishment and maintenance of a high-performing and high-trust public-service workforce. The most effective way of handling such workforce issues is through the trade union, and PCS has its part to play as the independent and democratic voice of the employees.

Professor Roger Seifert & Mike Ironside