Competition authority opposes Government’s Land Registry plans

THE Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has protested against plans to privatise the Land Registry, which could affect 300 workers in Telford.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) issued a consultation document earlier this year and the CMA has set out its opposition to the Government’s preferred plan for a privatised, verticallyintegrated Land Registry.

John Kirkpatrick, senior director at the CMA, has warned that forcing higher prices for access to Land Registry data would “harm consumers, while restricting innovation and choice in the flourishing app and website markets that rely on this as an input”.

In the organisation’s response to BIS, he said: “[W]e believe that consumers and the economy would be best served by a model that promotes wide access to Land Registry data at cost-reflective prices, encouraging its use and commercial exploitation by a range of individuals and businesses.

“Our view is that a privatised, vertically-integrated NewCo (Government’s preferred option) is unlikely to deliver this outcome, despite the best efforts of oversight bodies to regulate prices and write safeguards into a contract or licence.”

He highlighted particular concerns over access to data when a company supplies both the monopoly data and commercial products which use that data.

The consultation period ends this Friday.