The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has announced its members working for HM Land Registry (HMLR) will begin five days of strike action later this month.
More than 350 Land Registry workers in Birkenhead, Coventry, Croydon, Durham, Fylde, Gloucester, Hull, Leicester, Nottingham, Peterborough, Plymouth, Swansea, Telford, and Weymouth will take action from February 27th to March 3rd.
A Land Registry spokesperson told Today’s Conveyancer that HMLR “[does] not expect any disruption to [its] core services” as a result of the action:
“All time-critical services required for property transactions [will continue] as normal, including pre-completion searches (the majority of which are automated) and urgent applications that have been expedited.”
They did, however, concede that “some contact with HM Land Registry may be disrupted during this time”:
“Customers will likely experience longer call waiting times than usual and possibly reduced call hours. We apologise in advance for any inconvenience this might cause and would encourage all customers to contact us before 27th February if possible or use our online contact form.”
The strikes are the latest escalation in the union’s national strike in 123 government departments over pay, pensions, redundancy terms and job security.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka commented on the action:
“As long as the government shows no sign of resolving this dispute, we’ll show no signs to stopping strike action.
Ministers seem able to find money for just about everything other than giving their own employees a decent pay rise. PCS members have had enough of being taken for granted.”
10 responses
Considering the ridiculous backlogs that we have been experiencing for the last couple of years, I doubt that we will even notice a five day strike.
Perhaps it is time for the conveyancing profession to strike….partly so that our service is missed and starts to be appreciated for the valuable service that it is, and we can start to charge fees that justify the huge financial transactions that we are essentially underwriting, and partly to force lenders to back down on ridiculous requirements surrounding the Building Safety Act which should never have been imposed on us. These are jobs for RICS surveyors, not SRA and CLC regulated property lawyers.
Totally agree with all your comments. The length of time that the Land Registry are taking to complete registrations is ridiculous and the amount of requisitions that they raise
The Ongoing Covid19 Recession time forcing Government staff to Emergency Remote Working from Home had seriously impacted service standards across most if not all government back of house services, as Civil Servants are too busy watching Netflix at home instead of doing their intended job. The results speak for themselves.
This kind of thing always makes me laugh – if going on strike for 5 days will not cause disruption, isn’t the answer just to dispose of these people and save the cost of employing them altogether? Or are they in fact causing a lot of trouble to the public after all? They can’t have it both ways. And my heart bleeds for public service workers such as these whose income has not kept pace with inflation. Whose has thought, and why should they be better off than the rest of the population? Is it only people in the private sector who should weather this storm whilst simultaneously paying for others to get better treatment? What happened to all in it together?
The Land Registry backlog is ridiculous. Land Reg staff seem to be doing nothing to clear it, and are more unhelpful than ever. If they have targets they never seem to hit them, unless it’s to raise more […] requisitions to Conveyancers to make it our fault. They work flexi-time, including from home, with a good wage and holiday pay/pension compared to many public workers and have all gone home by 4pm on Friday. They can hardly compare themselves to nurses or even teachers – I’m gobsmacked that they believe they deserve more money. If a company in the private sector did this the company would have been closed – imagine if Conveyancers had a 2 year backlog!
Our current record for a Title Create (TP1) application is now over two years and one month. A disgrace.
HMLR should consider dismissing all its employees and engaging replacements just as President Ronald Reagan did with striking air-traffic controllers (or re-engaging those dismissed) on the basis that they wil work properly, accurately, and quickly to clear their backlog.
The LR have a myriad of issues, and requisition rates to conveyancers are not one of them despite the protestations of Mike Harlow to the contrary (those really only affect the figures used to monitor output…).
Among the biggest issues are the fact that the union doesn’t allow the case workers to be handed work or their output to be monitored, because that’s ‘bullying’.
Make your own judgement.
If you think the Land Registry is bad then look no further to the DVLA and the Tansport Secretary Rt Hon Grant Shapps CONservative MP for Hatfield and his CEO Julie Lennard (ex WHich consumer champion) who refuses to take complaints by Obstruction, refuses to accept consumer requests for Paper Forms (V5C) due to an over reliance on computers poorly paid employees – who the Government are abusing through their slave labour policies. The insurance policies and strategies of sales men and women the policies of yesteryear Treat them Mean – keep them Keen?
Government needs to listen – then Act ! Provide qualities of leading instead of abdicating their duties (and being paid huge salaries and bonuses backhanders and pensions -with special terms sucha s Scottish Widows now owned by Lloyds Bank which isitself state owned). Fair pay for a fair days work instead of this contempt for consumers and contempt for workers by “management who refuse to acknowledge the Real Value of Workers as an ASSET. How many days are lost due to irresponsibel Government instead of changing Prime Ministers – change their attitude .
This is ridiculous. HMLR workers should be shamed of themselves with the amount of backlog they have and the constant futile and unnecessary requisitions they raise.
How ridiculous is 5 day strike action…. they have a huge backlog and unnecessary requisitions ?? when are they going to catch up on the catchup work. My application was expediated in january….. they then sent me a requisition 29th january, which i sent back on the 1st feb.. since then nothing. If people want to strike thats their right but for 5 days straight is shameful