Privatisation and cuts at Land Registry

A five-year programme of reorganisation and transformation at the Land Registry will affect an estimated 1,400 staff who might either lose their jobs or be privatised, the PCS civil service union warns.

Offices are set to close in Peterborough, Stevenage, Croydon, Tunbridge Wells and Portsmouth, while the outsourcing of support functions and property sales will also be part of the cost cutting programme.

Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said that the union was shocked at the scale of cuts and sceptical about privatisation.

And he said that the government needs to recognise “that putting hard working civil and public servants on the dole at a time of economic uncertainty will only prolong the recession in the communities affected”.