HM Land Registry pending strike

Hundreds of HM Land Registry staff could go on strike over a civil service mandate to work in the office three days a week – however the public and conveyancing firms have been assured that any industrial action is unlikely to affect conveyancing transactions.

On 27 December 2024, around 3,800 civil servants at the Land Registry voted in favour of industrial action in a dispute over the government’s 60% office attendance mandate. The civil servants who voted for strike action are based at 14 Land Registry offices across England and Wales and are members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (“PCS”). PCS General Secretary Fran Heathcote argued that “applying arbitrary targets on office attendance doesn’t increase productivity and is unpopular with staff members”. Ms Heathcote also said that “if the government want a motivated, hard-working workforce, ministers should trust their own employees to have some say over their working conditions”.

Backlogs at the Land Registry are already at record highs, with some registrations taking as long as 24 months. The strike could cause even worse delays for agents and buyers as it is likely to coincide with a surge in transactions generated by the rush to complete purchases before the Stamp Duty changes on 1 April.

A spokesperson said: “HM Land Registry has plans in place to manage services during any periods of industrial action. We have consistently delivered essential services such as searches, registrations (including expedites), and customer contact during previous periods of industrial action and there is no reason why any potential future action should impact any forthcoming transactions.”

Land Registry is developing ‘dashboards’ to enable caseworkers to view their individual productivity, quality and training needs – but stressed that the process involves performance, not personal, data.

Our advice is to check to see whether your property has been registered before going to market.  Transactions can be expedited in certain scenarios which we will be happy to discuss with you.