HM Land Registry figures revealing a £158 million increase in staff costs since 2017 reflect the appointment of over 2,700 new employees, Matthew Pennycook, the minister of state for housing, communities and local government has said.
HMLR spent £326 million on staff costs for permanent employees in 2024-25, up from £168 million in 2016-17. Responding to a written question from Neil O’Brien, the shadow minister for policy renewal and development, Pennycook explained:
“The drivers of this increase are a combination of the compound interest of annual pay increases, plus the increase in permanent employees from 4,148 at the end of March 2017, to 6,907 at the end of March 2025.”
The 2,759 increase in permanent employees follows a period of underinvestment following the property market crash in 2007-8, before which HMLR had over 8,000 permanent staff, Pennycook added.
In December, HMLR said it is “working hard internally” to strengthen its process, which included training more than 4,000 employees in its Land Registration Academy since 2021.
As a result, the organisation said, it now “offers more information about application quality, giving conveyancers and law firms clearer insight into what they can do to improve their applications and reduce costly delays for HM Land Registry, themselves and their clients in the property market.”
In April last year, the then chief executive of HMLR outlined the improvements made by the service and promised there would be no complacency in the ongoing drive to reduce registration times.
“‘I know that improving the speed of registration is our customers’ number one concern,” Simon Hayes said. “It is the same for all of us at HM Land Registry. I am pleased to be able to say we are making real headway on this now.”
Alongside an increase in staff numbers and training, HMLR has introduced several new measures over the last year in its drive to improve processing times. In December, the organisation published avoidable requisitions data on GOV.UK for the first time, which it said would “help conveyancers cut delays, improve application quality and access free training”.
The updated data showed “encouraging progress” since HMLR started sharing resources in May 2025, which include free workshops and on-demand training via an online training hub , with automated digital checks to prevent mistakes at source. It has also published a video with caseworkers’ top 10 tips for making sure applications are complete and correct.
Since the changes were introduced, just under a third (29%) of professional customers have seen a reduction in their avoidable requisition rates, and 57% now have rates below 5%.
Other changes include simplifying the language and descriptions used in title registers, improved digital services for Business Gateway customers, and the acceptance of Qualified Electronic Signatures on applications.
An analysis by Novus Strategy revealed only one instance of QES has been recorded in the three months since it was introduced, however, HMLR said it believes the technology “is the future of the market” and welcomed enquiries from conveyancers interested in using QES.
Digitalisation is a major focus of HMLR’s Strategy 2025+, which sets out its long-term priorities to modernise property transactions and improve the customer experience.
