Clause 4 - When title must be registered
Land Registration Bill [Lords]
10:45 am
Mr Michael Wills (Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department; North Swindon, Labour)
The amendment, which is an old friend, stands with nine others of identical wording with which it would take collective effect. Those who have been involved with the Bill for some time have seen this idea in various shapes and forms in discussions and debates in the other place. We must resist the amendment because there is a fundamental difference between its supporters and us.
The Government believe that the progressive extension of registration over the past century is one of the great success stories in the reform of the law and public services. That applies to the extension of registration to leases in general and commercial leases in particular. The general case is clear: registration involves additional investment and more work for the conveyancer on registration. Both those costs are relatively small compared with the overall cost of drawing up a lease, let alone the value of the transaction—this is an investment in which we can spend to save. When the lease is not registered, any significant subsequent transaction would require the initial conveyancing work to establish the title from the head lease and from the lease itself to be redone, with all the consequent costs. That effort is unnecessary when the lease is registered, and a great deal of unnecessary and expensive work would therefore be saved. When the lease permits the granting of rights over land, issues such as rights of way or shooting and fishing rights would become easier in a registered system. The Bill also significantly improves the protection that can be given to shooting and fishing rights.