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Land Registry forced to lay off 1,200 staff after drop in revenue from fees
Benedict Moore-Bridger7 Jan 2009
THE property ownership register could make more than 1,200 staff redundant because of a slump in profits.
All staff over the age of 50 have been offered early retirement and all administrative staff have been invited to apply for voluntary redundancy.
The Land Registry, which has 8,000 employees, receives a fee each time a property changes hands. Revenue has dropped sharply because of the collapse in the property market.
A source at the agency confirmed that the latest lay-offs were because of the declining economy and said: "Fees are our main income. The amount of work coming into Land Registry has fallen significantly as a result of the current economic situation. This means our fee income has fallen."
A spokesman added that a move to more online services also meant they needed to reduce staff.
She said: "We have offered an early retirement scheme to all staff over 50 and a voluntary early release scheme for all staff at Registration Assistant and Registration Officer grades.
"In addition to the above schemes, Land Registry has offered voluntary early release to all staff at six of our regional offices, in towns where we have two offices."
It is not yet known how many staff will take up the offer or retirement or redundancy. The closing date for the schemes is the end of this month
Land Registry chief executive Peter Collis said: "Our priority is to safeguard our long-term position as we try to ride out this downturn in the market.
"We do not know how long the property market will be in the doldrums, but we are determined to emerge from this stronger and more successful than ever before."
Reader views (7)
As an employee of Land Registry I can assure your readers that yes the Land Registry pension is a Final Salary Scheme and in fact one of the best in the country. Added to the fact that those staff taking the Voluntary severance have been offered this on Compulsory terms - i.e. the maximum payout possible, £50 million has been set aside to induce these staff to leave, I think it is fair to say that those Land Registry staff leaving are not shedding any tears either and are in fact laughing all the way to the bank. In fact it is us Civil Servants that remain in our safe cushy jobs that will be wondering whether to shed a tear while we gaze out of our office windows whilst everyone else finds themselves unemployed with no redundancy payout.
- X, West Midlands, 16/01/2009 17:45
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This is wonderful news for these workers.
With their knowledge of the property market, they can take early retirement, and set up as Estate Agents!
- John Jones, Westminster, 07/01/2009 15:12
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This is wonderful news for these workers.
With their knowledge of the property market, they can take early retirement, and set up as Estate Agents!
- John Jones, Westminster, 07/01/2009 15:12
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They employ 8,000 people? How exactly? They only manage England and Wales, ROS run Scotland and LRNI manage Northern Ireland. As a small company of less than 50 people we collate data from all of the UK mortgage companies garnering retail information from LR, LRNI and ROS along with generating maps using Ordnance Survey data I fail to see how it takes 8,000 people to do what they do (especially considering the large proportion of amendments to mistakes in the LR data we receive month on month).
- Rob Medahn, Crystal Palace, 07/01/2009 15:00
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Good, this should save some of the tax payers money. Most documents and information can be done through their website, so there's no need to communicate with a human being.
- Triffidqueen, Desk in London, 07/01/2009 13:40
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I'm sure most people won't be shedding any tears over public sector workers losing their cushy jobs.
- P I Staker, London, 07/01/2009 11:28
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Wow. Shows just how much profit the Government was raking in from it's collusion in the property 'ladder' bubble. And that the Land Registry was over-staffed: will they all be retiring on pensions based on final year salary?
- Roz, Chamonix, France, 07/01/2009 11:19
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