IT staff affected by Land Registry shakeup

The housing slump has hit Land Registry

IT staff at Land Registry look likely to be affected by a major shakeup precipitated by the collapse of the property market.

Total staff numbers at the agency are being reduced from 6,500 to 5,000 by September 2011 with offices closing in Croydon, Portsmouth, Tunbridge Wells, Stevenage, Peterborough and Plymouth, and the admission that some compulsory redundancies will be "unavoidable".

The five-year transformation programme includes the merger of the Registry's major regional information systems function with its local office in Plymouth in a single building.

The maintenance of desktop hardware and systems across the country has already been outsourced under a partnership arrangement with Steria, which will have to cope with the movement of work into fewer regional offices.

The head office will move to smaller leased accommodation in central London with a reduction in clerical staff from 600 to about 125.

And there will be more outsourcing of some functions including facilities management and file stores, with an investigation into using other government departments to deliver some support functions.

The programme was announced by junior justice minister Michael Wills in the Commons.

A rationalisation began in May 2006 which has already led to the loss of 1,800 staff.

Peter Collis, chief executive and chief land registrar said: “The collapse in the housing market last year had a serious and significant effect on our work and income and we lost nearly £130m. Despite the steps we have already taken to cut costs, we will make another loss this year. These proposals will allow us to make far better use of our buildings and to create significant efficiency savings. The reshaped Land Registry that will emerge over the next few years will serve its customers even better than before."

Earlier this month, Land Registry and Ordnance Survey agreed to share a dedicated secure datacentre in a move that could herald more government inter-agency cost-saving IT deals.