The property industry must keep up the pressure on the Government for the Land Registry to be kept in public hands after a sell-off seems to have been quietly abandoned, a search company has said.

Andrew Lloyd, managing director of Search Acumen, said privatisation of the Land Registry should be kept off the table after it was absent from the Neighbourhood Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

A consultation on privatisation of the Land Registry had been launched in May and a sell-off was mentioned in the Queen’s Speech, but Lloyd says its absence from proposed legislation does not mean the end of the matter.

He added: “The Land Registry has come in for quite a bit of criticism over the years for being outdated, old fashioned, inefficient. That’s part of the rationale for a sale.

“But over the past few years things have actually moved in a much more positive direction, with the Land Registry making great strides in commercialising its data, and in grasping the potential of ‘big data’.

“This has allowed innovators and disrupters in the private sector to transform the industry for the better through new products that utilise Land Registry data. Entrepreneurs and creative minds are unlocking the opportunities buried in big data, and deploying that acumen to create efficiencies for property and legal professionals.

“The Land Registry is committed to going further and releasing more of its data sets in the near future, so why privatise and jeopardise all of this progress?

“As the UK follows the post-Brexit journey and the housing crisis continues, I hope that the Land Registry is used efficiently to help strengthen our industry rather than add to our problems.”