Revealed: how we'd lose out on future profits in Land Registry privatisation

PRESS RELEASE

With the consultation on privatising the Land Registry closing in a few days, new analysis finds that selling off public assets now is a bad decision for government finances in the long term.

The report from the New Economics Foundation for We Own It looks at how future profits will outweigh the cash from a one off sale for a range of profitable public assets currently under threat.

If the Land Registry is sold off, the public will lose out financially from the sale in 25 years, the report finds. The Royal Mail sale (in 2013 and 2015) means that we’ll be worse off within 10 years. A decision to sell off the government’s stake in National Air Traffic Services would lose us money in just seven years’ time.

The government’s consultation on moving the operations of the Land Registry to the private sector closes on Thursday 26th May. The recent Queen’s Speech announced that Land Registry privatisation would be enabled by a new Neighbourhood Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

The government is currently planning to privatise the Land Registry, privatise the remaining public stake in National Air Traffic Services, look at options for introducing private sector capital into Ordnance Survey and look at options for partial privatisation of Channel 4.

The report points to the ways in which the publicly owned Land Registry has modernised and innovated, turning itself into a digital organisation. Digitisation of processes has meant the organisation has returned millions of pounds to the end user in saved fees.

Cat Hobbs, director of We Own It said: “George Osborne can't have his cake and eat it. If he goes ahead with the Great British sell off, we'll have lost our public assets forever - and all the millions of profit they bring in every year. The Land Registry is a profitable, successful, innovative organisation doing a great job - why privatise it? We need to think about the wealth of the next generation not just a quick fix on the deficit.'

Duncan McCann, researcher at the New Economics Foundation said: “Politicians often work on a short timeframe. This report shows just how short. These valuable assets can bring in long term sustainable income. They are working well, have successfully modernised and our economy can benefit most from them staying in public hands.'

We Own It polling shows 70% of the public want the Land Registry to stay public. A 38 Degrees petition started by solicitor James Ferguson now has 225,000 signatures.

The report finds that any move to sell Ordnance Survey would mean a loss of future revenue of over £910 million over the next 30 years and points out that Channel 4 contributes £1.1 billion a year to the economy.