National award for council’s work supporting the housing market

14 Mar 2024

Work carried out by West Suffolk Council to support the success of the local housing market, has seen it win a national award.

For many people buying or selling a home, the land charges data on HM Land Registry’s central register is crucial. If that data is not accurate and kept up to date, it can lead to delays to house purchases and even the collapse of chains. 

The data is equally as important for the success of commercial land transactions supporting the growth of the economy.

Nationally, HM Land Registry is running a major programme to modernise the local land charges sector to make it more efficient, and lead to both swifter and smoother house sales.

And locally, that data is managed and fed into the central register by West Suffolk Council’s Planning Business Support Service.

Now West Suffolk has won Best Migrated Local Authority in the 2024 Land Data Awards for Excellence. Councils do not apply for the award but are instead selected by HM Land Registry to win. The award is based on criteria including how long it took councils to register land charge information and accuracy.

The award is an example of how the council, through providing high quality essential services, is supporting its strategic priorities of helping to provide affordable, available and decent homes and sustainable growth.

Cllr Jim Thorndyke, Cabinet Member for Planning at West Suffolk Council, said: “I am absolutely delighted to see the professional pride of our service, recognised with this national award that we were selected for. West Suffolk is a great place to live and work and this further illustrates the crucial role that the essential services the council delivers play in supporting affordable, available and decent homes for our local housing market. It also helps bring sustainable growth, investment and jobs to our local area.”

Jamie Winch, Senior Delivery Manager at HM Land Registry, said: “West Suffolk has come out on top in this highly competitive award, which recognises teams who are doing an outstanding job of managing the data on the Local Land Charges Register. Highly accurate, reliable, up-to-the-minute data about land and property means the best possible outcomes for local home movers. Many congratulations to the West Suffolk team.”

Fiona Barron, Chief Executive of Land Data which organises the awards, said: “Local Land Charges teams are instrumental in the home buying and selling process – managing essential data that could affect the future use or development of a property. The West Suffolk Local Land Charges team has gone above and beyond to reshape its processes, ensuring the accuracy of data being provided to conveyancers and other customers remains of the highest quality after the migration of their Register. They are very worthy winners.”

The Best Migrated Local Authority Award was announced as part of the Local Land Charges Training and Development event on 4 March and 5 March. ;Other award categories include Customer Satisfaction, Best Performing Local Land Charges Department, Local Authority Searches Team of the Year, Best Performing Searches Team Member and the Unsung Hero Award.

Since their launch in 2008, the annual Local Land Charges Awards for Excellence remain the only national awards celebrating the achievements and successes of Local Authority Local Land Charges departments across England and Wales.

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