Strategy

Overview of strategy for 2004-05

The financial year 2004-05 is the third year of our 10-year Strategic Plan.

Customer service and operations
We expect continued growth in Land Registry business due to increased activity arising from the Land Registration Act 2002, under which leases with an unexpired term of seven or more years are now registrable (previously we only registered leases of more than 21 years).

We will complete the new building for our Information Systems Group in Plymouth, set up a third computer site to increase further the robustness of our IT systems and introduce an electronic records management system.

Finance
We will continue to develop our financial systems so that we are fully equipped to meet the challenges ahead, in particular the advent of electronic fee collection.

Comprehensive Land Register
We will continue with our voluntary first registration programme in order to make progress towards the goal of total registration.

Electronic delivery of services
We will introduce a facility for printing authenticated Official Copies of the Register and Official Search results in customers’ own offices. Following a successful pilot of electronically removing charges from the Register as soon as the mortgage balance is paid off, we expect to extend this facility to other lenders during the year.

Electronic conveyancing
We will begin to pilot the electronic lodgement of forms and will also carry out a procurement exercise to identify the technical partners with whom we can work to deliver e-conveyancing.

New legislation
2004-05 will largely be a year in which we learn to operate confidently with the new Land Registration Act 2002. We believe there will be real benefits in having a standard form of lease and we will consult on our proposals for this during the year.

Business development
We will provide live data to the European Land Information Service, the development of which we have helped to lead.