The Land Registry has unveiled its digital Local Land Charges (LLC) Register, with Warwick District Council the first to have its data migrated.

The move means any conveyancers requiring local land charge searches in the local authority area of Warwick will need to get them from HM Land Registry rather than going to the council.

SearchFlow was among the first to use the service yesterday and said it means conveyancers can receive the result momentarily rather than in days.

Graham Farrant, chief land registrar, said this marks another step in the Land Registry’s transformation to fulfil its ambition to be the world’s leading land registry for speed, simplicity and an open approach to data.

He said: “Buying a house is the biggest financial investment of people’s lives. By centralising and digitising the local land charges information of local authorities in England we are helping to improve conveyancing.

“Search results from the new register will be instantly available in a standard, easy-to-read format. This is another significant step forward in the Government’s ambition to make the home-buying process simpler, faster and cheaper.”

Chris Elliott, chief executive of Warwick District Council, said: “As a forward-looking council aiming to provide the best possible service to all of our customers, we very much welcome any measures which will speed up the process of buying a home.

“Opening up our data to HM Land Registry will be a huge benefit not only to those wishing to purchase a home or land in our district, but also to our busy planning team.”

The Land Registry is working in partnership with up to 26 local authorities in England this year to migrate their LLC data to a central, digital register in a phased approach. Once the data is migrated, anyone will be able to get instant online search results through GOV.UK: Search for Local Land Charges.

Andrew Lloyd, managing director of conveyancing software provider Search Acumen, said: “Search Acumen is excited to get down to work and begin to utilise the Land Registry’s  newly opened, central digital Local Land Charges  register. It is early days, but we think the ability to immediately execute LLC searches will completely transform UK property transactions.

“Decentralised LLC searches ranged from a few pounds to nearly £100, depending on the local authority. And, because the process is often manual, turnaround time can fluctuate from one business day to more than 40 days. With around 979,000 transactions registered over the past four quarters across England and Wales, that’s anywhere between 979,000 working days of waiting time at best, or more than 39m at worst.

“It’s therefore no surprise that LLC searches have too often been the fly in the ointment for both residential and commercial property transactions. Property professionals have been at the mercy of a fragmented process that can result in a sub-optimal service for their clients.  The launch of the central digital register today is a big step towards getting as close to the best-case scenario as possible, and even going one better through digital technology.”