Osborne Revives Plan For Land Registry Sale

George Osborne is reviving plans for a £1bn-plus privatisation of the Land Registry less than 18 months after the sell-off was vetoed by Liberal Democrat ministers.

Sky News has learnt that Rothschild, the investment bank, has been asked in recent days to examine options for a sale of the organisation, which controls the records of all property transactions in England and Wales.

Sources said on Tuesday that the Chancellor could outline plans to explore a partial sale of the Land Registry in next week's Autumn Statement, although officials from the Treasury and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills declined to comment on the process.

Previous reports have estimated the Land Registry's value at £1.2bn, with it having recorded a surplus of almost £100m in 2012-13.

Mr Osborne has embarked on one of the most prolific privatisation sprees in British history, sanctioning the sale of vast chunks of the banking industry that were privatised during the financial crisis of 2007.

Last week, he offloaded a £13bn mortgage portfolio to Cerberus , an American investment firm.

A string of other asset sales are likely to follow, including that of Channel 4, the state-owned broadcaster, whose chairman, Lord Burns, was recently ousted because of his opposition to a sell-off.

Ministers have previously explored a part-privatisation of the Land Registry, including the creation of a new joint venture company which would be partly owned by private sector investors.

The alternative option considered last year was to hand over the running of the agency to a private company in the form of a so-called GovCo.

The Land Registry is part of BIS and a member of the Public Data Group within the Department, although it is unclear whether it will transfer to the Treasury, which has established a new holding company, UK Government Investments, for state-owned assets.

Graham Farrant, the Land Registry chief executive and chief land registrar, Graham Farrant, reports to Sajid Javid, the Business Secretary, and Anna Soubry, a member of the BIS ministerial team.

The Land Registry employs thousands of civil servants, and efforts to progress a sell-off during the last parliament triggered a sizeable revolt from the PCS union and the Law Society, with union members walking out in protest at the plans in May 2014.

Sir Vince Cable, Mr Javid's predecessor, argued against the sell-off despite his enthusiasm for the injection of private capital into companies such as Royal Mail.

Rothschild is one of the Government's most trusted City advisers, working on the sale of billions of pounds of student loans and advising the Department for Transport on financing options for a new runway in the south-east of England.