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Fresh bid to privatise Land Registry expected in Autumn Statement

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  • 18/11/2015
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Fresh bid to privatise Land Registry expected in Autumn Statement
A renewed bid to privatise the Land Registry in a £1bn-plus deal is said to be under consideration by the government a week ahead of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.

Sky News has reported that investment bank Rothschild has been called in to look at the options available to the government if it was to sell off the state-owned organisation.

The government abandoned plans to partially or fully privatise the Land Registry in July last year. Its plans were to run the organisation as a joint venture with a private company or as a fully privatised government company.

After consulting on the matter in early 2014, the government decided to consider the plans further due to the Land Registry’s ‘ambitious’ business strategy to move complex transactions online, said Michael Fallon speaking on the issue at the time. Fallon, the former minister for business and enterprise now defence secretary, said the importance of the Land Registry to the effective operation of the UK property market was such that further consideration would be valuable.

Campaigners against the privatisation, said handing over information held by the Land Registry will go to a company which will want to make money out of public data.

Sky News said sources had confirmed that George Osborne intended to outline his plans to look into the sell-off during the Autumn Statement on 25 November.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business Innovation and Skills said: “The government keeps all the assets it holds or manages under review in order to ensure we’re getting best value for taxpayers.”

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