Performance, progress towards strategic objectives and future strategy

Land charges and agricultural credits

The Land Charges Department operates under the authority of the Land Charges Act 1972. It maintains registers of Land Charges, pending actions, writs and orders affecting land and other encumbrances registered against the names of owners of property that is not registered under the Land Registration Acts.

Agricultural Credits is responsible for maintaining a register of short-term loans by banks under Part ll of the Agricultural Credits Act 1928. These charges are secured on farming stock and other agricultural assets of the farmer.

This year the Land Charges and Agricultural Credits Departments dealt with 5,154,039 applications (down 14.6 per cent). The decrease was due in the main to a downturn in the property market.

Search and office copy applications made by telephone, direct access and fax increased to 69% of the yearly total (up nine per cent), with 84 per cent of office copy applications being delivered in this way. Eighteen per cent of Land Charge searches are now processed through Land Registry Direct. Telephone searches, as a proportion of total search applications received, increased to 51 per cent (down from 54 per cent).