If you've ever been part of a property chain you'll be familiar with the need to supply certain documents when selling your home – one of them being the HM Land Registry Title Plan that outlines your property's boundaries.
While the HM Land Registry has always been the custodian of this document, it relies on the Ordnance Survey (OS) organisation to provide it with the necessary information needed to create it.
Now, as part of digitalisation plans to make access to information quicker and easier, the two have joined forces. The potential result? Buying and selling a home could experience less delays with the data more readily available.
How the partnership will work
Under a Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, the two parties have committed to working together more closely in the hope that it will help to create a better-functioning property market.
It is hoped that by sharing data more freely, there will be more in-depth and detailed information about land as a whole, which will improve the property market and boost growth and innovation.
While OS has already undergone a digital transformation to deliver its data more widely, HM Land Registry is still in the early days of its Strategy 2025+ plans which it launched in a bid to make property services “better, faster and less stressful”. This new partnership is part of this umbrella scheme.
This new agreement will also support the government's revised National Planning Policy Framework – the reforms of which were passed this week.
According to the government, The OS and HM Land Registry collaboration includes:
- ensuring strategic alignment, in relation to the OS National Geographic Database and OS Product roadmap and HM Land Registry’s geospatial roadmap and transformation
- sharing insights and concepts: what the market needs and how OS and HM Land Registry can best fulfil their public tasks to drive economic growth
- leveraging opportunities for data distribution including making best use of OS’s DataHub to provide HM Land Registry data to market
- exchanging knowledge, skills and best practice in areas of shared interest such as licensing, geospatial, compliance; helping to create a consistent public sector standard for commercial models and reuse of data
Additional benefits could reduce risk to homeowners
As well as improving the speed at which information can be provided, it is hoped the partnership will also reduce the risk of property fraud, aid with boundary disputes and assist with property insurance assessment risks.
"A more efficient property market is vital to the UK economy. It helps people move home more easily, supports development and investment, and underpins one of the most significant assets many people own," said Tina Kennedy, chief customer officer at OS.
"This is an invaluable opportunity to work closely with HM Land Registry to deliver value to government, homebuyers and developers. Our trusted data has always been integral to the land registration process, so we are delighted to be collaborating with HMLR to further improve data accessibility across government and strengthen connectivity between departments across the housing market.
Lynne Nicholson, deputy director for data and head of data group at HM Land Registry, said: "We have exciting plans to transition from traditional record keeping to actively fuelling economic growth and unlocking new opportunities across the housing sector. I am looking forward to working closely with Ordnance Survey colleagues to share insights and ideas, and build a shared vision for trusted data that will make a real difference for all of our customers."
