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A crackdown on ownership of ‘land trusts’, including foreign investors, has been announced by the Government and backed by former agency owner Kevin Hollinrake MP (main pic).
It is to be made clearer who owns the trusts in a move designed to tackle corruption in the property sector.
Currently, the identity of the beneficiary is not always recorded or publicly available, potentially leading to secrecy or corruption in the sector, the Government says.
The new plans will mean residents, the media and the public will be able to find out who owns land and property, as well as who controls it and receives financial benefit from it.
‘Veil of secrecy’
Michael Gove, Housing Secretary
Housing secretary Michael Gove says: “It matters who really owns land and property. These proposals will lift the veil of secrecy currently afforded to land-holding trusts.
“Transparency about land ownership is crucial if we want to make our housing and land markets fairer. In its absence, injustices, corruption and crime can flourish.”
A consultation on the plans runs for eight weeks, and seeks views on widening access to trust information held on the Register of Overseas Entities.
The Register for Overseas Entities is imperative in ensuring we weed out kleptocrats and oligarchs buying up British properties under false names”.
Kevin Hollinrake MP
Hollinrake, minister for small business and co-founder of the Hunters chain, says: “The Register for Overseas Entities is imperative in ensuring we weed out kleptocrats and oligarchs buying up British properties under false names, and has already helped identify absent landlords so that they can be held to account.”
The changes will make it as easy as possible for people to access all land and property ownership data across a range of different public registers.
Greater transparency will help tackle illicit finance and corruption in the system, the Government says, with offshore trusts in the UK property sector identified as posing a higher risk of money laundering.
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