Government stops councils charging for land charges

Home buyers can access more information about their new home without having to pay for the information, the Government has announced.

The fixed fee charged for personal searches of councils' local land charges register is to be abolished. Land searches tell a home buyer about restrictions or issues that affect the property, such as planning conditions, conservation areas and protected trees.

The law is now being changed to stop people being charged a £22 fee for a personal search of the Local Land Charges Register. This move is intended to make key environmental information more accessible to the public.

Housing minister, Grant Shapps, said making sure that this information can be accessed free of charge fits with the government's wider drive for "open data" to make "public sector information more transparent and accessible to the public online".

"Local councils are in the forefront of this agenda to increase accountability and open up the books," he said.

"We've already taken steps to scrap Home Information Packs, and now we are cutting the cost of researching the detail about your new home," said Shapps.

Removing the fee ensures compliance with European law because information on the local land charges register is overwhelmingly environmental information. The Environmental Information Regulations say that examination of environmental information on site should be free of charge.

The government is liaising with local councils to provide guidance and assistance on the changes, and to tackle the financial impact. The Local Government Association has been asked to work with government to assess the impact of removing this fixed fee on local authority finances.