Chief Executive appointed to HM Land Registry

Iain Banfield has been appointed as the permanent Chief Executive and Chief Land Registrar of HM Land Registry following his successful tenure as Interim Chief Executive.

HM Land Registry reports strong progress for customers

Our Annual Report and Accounts 2025-26, published this month, showcases significant progress made in improving our services for customers, accelerating digital transformation and supporting reforms across the wider property market.

Coming soon: changes to emails about applications

From late August, application-related emails such as requisitions, letters and notices will no longer have PDF attachments. Instead, you'll receive a secure link within the email to access your documents.

When you click the link, you will be asked to enter the email address the email was originally sent to. If the email is forwarded to another team member, they can still access the link, provided they know the original recipient's email address.

There is no change to the way PDFs are shown in the portal. Customers who receive correspondence via software connected to HM Land Registry Business Gateway APIs (application programming interfaces) will not be affected.

The correspondence you receive won't change, only the way it's accessed. We'll share further updates and reminders ahead of the change.

Contractual control agreements

As we reported last month, new regulations coming into force in April 2027 will require certain contractual control agreements affecting registered land in England and Wales to be submitted digitally to HM Land Registry. We have since added a list of information required when making a submission.

Helping estate agents get ahead

Kotini develops software for UK estate agents, helping them to streamline the customer onboarding process. Kotini joined the Geovation Accelerator Programme in 2023.

Family trusts: what homeowners need to know

Kathryn Davies, Deputy Director of Legal Operations, provides a guide to understanding the potential impact on land registration of setting up a family trust and why homeowners should consider getting legal advice before making decisions.

June 2026 Transaction Data

In June we completed 2,039,832 applications, compared with 1,789,644 in May 2026 and 1,883,560 in June 2025. Birmingham was the busiest local authority area with 31,541 applications, followed by City of Westminster, North Yorkshire, Leeds and Cornwall.

Views wanted on application progress tracker

If you are a member of the public or a professional customer not currently using the portal or legal software, we need your views on a new service to provide application progress updates on GOV.UK. Please fill in our short survey and leave an email/phone number for one of our researchers to contact you. We'd also be grateful if professional customers could refer their clients to the survey.

Already attended our New Builds workshop? Take your knowledge further

Already attended our New Builds workshop? This isn't the same session.

New Builds in Depth is a new 90-minute workshop that takes a closer look at four areas customers consistently tell us are the most challenging:

• Multi-title lodgement
• Restrictions
• Plans issues
• E-signatures

Developed with input from customer focus groups and delivered by HM Land Registry casework experts, the session uses practical examples to help you tackle common problems and submit applications with more confidence.

There'll also be a live Q&A, giving you the chance to put your questions directly to our experts.

New Builds in Depth Tuesday 29 September, 10am to 11.30am Online

Places are free, but they’re limited. Sign up today to secure your place.

New to conveyancing? Get to know us

Join us at 10am on Thursday 8 October for An Introduction to HM Land Registry, a free 90-minute online workshop for anyone new to conveyancing and land registration.

The session will give you an essential introduction to HM Land Registry, covering:

• what HM Land Registry does;
• how HM Land Registry fits into the conveyancing process;
• the title register and title plan;
• requests for information, commonly known as requisitions; and
• the training hub.

There’s also a live Q&A with the customer training team and Adam Hookway from the customer policy team.

Places are free. Sign up to build your confidence and get your questions answered by our experts.

Practice guide updates

We have updated:

• First registration of title if deeds are lost or destroyed (PG2);
• Index map: official search (PG10);
• Notices, restrictions and protection of third-party interests (PG19);
• Leases: determination (PG26);
• HM Land Registry plans: title plan (PG40s5); and
• Acquisition of land by general vesting declaration (PG54).

See our full Practice guides collection. For details on the updates to our guides, subscribe to our monthly Practice and Process newsletter.

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