A new collaboration between HM Land Registry and Ordnance Survey
(OS) will help transform the property market by enhancing data
accessibility and innovation in the housing and geospatial
sectors. This will reduce friction for citizens and businesses,
boost confidence in property rights and the housing sector, and
support government policy and economic growth.
HM Land Registry has been at the heart of property market
transactions in England and Wales for over 160 years, keeping the
trusted, official record of who owns land. As the market evolves,
HM Land Registry wants to make its data easier to access and use,
and connect with other property market data. It aims to
transition from simply being a custodian of data to actively
using that data to enable a betterfunctioning property market,
supporting growth, innovation and confidence in the UK economy.
OS is integral to the land registration process, tracking new
housing developments and surveying building footprints, providing
the most up to date data when new homes are being registered. Its
data is used by over 4,500 case workers every day to maintain the
Title (Land) Register and is used to visualise general boundaries
on all Land Registry Title Plans.
Now the two long-standing organisations, who have a common
ambition to unlock the value of land and location data, have
signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This will help shape
a more connected, digitally enabled property market over the next
three years, driving improvements for citizens, businesses, and
government services.
As part of its ongoing digital transformation journey, HM Land
Registry launched Strategy 2025+ last year, committing to making
property services better, faster and less stressful. The new
initiative with OS is the next step in that transformation. OS is
well-placed to support, having been through its own digital
transformation in recent years, delivering more data into the
hands of more organisations to support better decision-making.
The OS and HM Land Registry collaboration includes:
-
ensuring strategic alignment, in relation to the OS National
Geographic Database and OS Product roadmap and HM Land
Registry's geospatial roadmap and transformation
-
sharing insights and concepts: what the market needs and how
OS and HM Land Registry can best fulfil their public tasks to
drive economic growth
-
leveraging opportunities for data distribution including
making best use of OS's DataHub to provide HM Land Registry
data to market
-
exchanging knowledge, skills and best practice in areas of
shared interest such as licensing, geospatial, compliance;
helping to create a consistent public sector standard for
commercial models and reuse of data
Tina Kennedy, Chief Customer Officer at OS, welcomed the
collaboration:
A more efficient property market is vital to the UK economy. It
helps people move home more easily, supports development and
investment, and underpins one of the most significant assets many
people own. This is an invaluable opportunity to work closely
with HM Land Registry to deliver value to government, homebuyers
and developers. Our trusted data has always been integral to the
land registration process, so we are delighted to be
collaborating with HMLR to further improve data accessibility
across government and strengthen connectivity between departments
across the housing market.
Lynne Nicholson, Deputy Director for Data and Head of Data Group
at HM Land Registry, said:
We have exciting plans to transition from traditional record
keeping to actively fuelling economic growth and unlocking new
opportunities across the housing sector. I am looking forward to
working closely with Ordnance Survey colleagues to share insights
and ideas, and build a shared vision for trusted data that will
make a real difference for all of our customers.
The collaboration supports the 2024-2026 government's strategic
plan to enable the delivery of 1.5 million new homes across
England in the current parliament, alongside continued work to
support the regeneration of communities. It also supports a
strong property market, which plays an important part in the
nation's economy and prosperity. In England and Wales, properties
are valued at nearly £9 trillion, making up over half of the
nation's wealth, with around £1.66 trillion of lending secured
against it. The UK has one of the world's largest property
markets with annual sales surpassing £360 billion.
Other benefits to a more efficient land registration process
include more efficient environmental planning, minimising fraud
in duplicating property titles and using HM Land Registry and OS
data to identify property insurance risk based on the
geographical spread and ownership of portfolios.
