Contractual Control Rules for Land in England and Wales

Most of us think about land in a simple way: you either own it or you do not. These new Regulations are a reminder that there is a large space in between. A person or company can have a contract that gives them real influence over a site long before they become the registered owner, and the government now wants much more of that influence out in the open. Published on legislation.gov.uk as the Provision of Information (Contractual Control) (Registered Land) Regulations 2026, the rules were made on 8 June 2026 and come into force on 6 April 2027. They apply in England and Wales, sit under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, and were approved by both Houses of Parliament. The legal wording is dense, but the big idea is straightforward: if someone has a serious contractual hold over registered land, HM Land Registry wants to know about it.

So what does 'contractual control' actually mean? In plain English, it means the landowner has signed a deal that gives somebody else a right to shape a future sale or long lease of the land. That other person may not own the site today, but they may already have a strong hand in what happens next. According to the Regulations, that includes four main kinds of right. It can be an option to require a sale or a lease of 15 years or more. It can be a conditional right to force a transfer once certain agreed conditions are met. It can be a right of pre-emption, often understood as a first-refusal right. And it can be a right to direct the owner to transfer the land to another person. **What this means:** land can be effectively tied up for development even before ownership changes on the register.

Not every land deal is caught by the new regime. The Regulations are aimed at registered land and at what they call a qualifying estate, which in practice means registered freeholds and longer leaseholds, but not a leasehold with fewer than 15 years left when the right is created. They are also aimed at control rights that last long enough to matter. If the total period of control is less than 18 months, the right is exempt. Other exemptions are important too. Rights linked to national security or defence are excluded. So are certain finance-related rights used as security for loans or financial instruments, some payment-protection arrangements for former owners, and some section 106 agreements with local planning authorities where the right relates only to infrastructure, amenities or services. A right is also exempt if it is held exclusively for purposes unrelated to future development that would create one or more homes, or a building with at least 100 square metres of floorspace. In other words, the focus is on development-facing control, not every private contract involving land.

The duty to report usually falls on the grantee, which is the person entitled to enforce the right. If a contractual control right is granted, assigned or changed in writing on or after 6 April 2027, the grantee must provide the required information to the registrar within 60 days. There is also a catch-up rule for deals already being done now: if the right was granted after 8 June 2026 but before 6 April 2027, the information must be filed before 6 October 2027. The rules also connect transparency to the land register itself. If someone applies for a notice or a restriction to protect one of these rights on the title, they must provide the information at the same time. That can also apply where the right was granted before the grantor became the registered proprietor, if someone is now seeking to protect it on the register. **Why that matters:** the reporting duty is not floating in the background. It is tied to the normal legal steps people take when they want their land deal formally recognised.

The information HM Land Registry can ask for is detailed. It includes the names of the grantor and grantee, and for companies, partnerships or other legal persons, a registration number or other identifier that can pin down exactly who they are. It also includes the type of right, the date and description of the contract, when the right can be exercised, the title number, and the address of the land. If only part of the land is affected, that part has to be identified. If the right covers land held apart from the surface, including airspace, that has to be stated too. One of the more technical ideas becomes easier once you translate it. The Regulations ask for both the 'initial period of control' and the 'total period of control'. The first is the original window set by the contract. The second includes any extension rights built into the deal. That matters because a site that looks tied up for two years may in fact be tied up for much longer. For individual grantors, the grantee may also have to provide date of birth and place of birth, although the registrar can waive that requirement in some cases where it cannot reasonably be met.

The filing duty does not stop once the first information has gone in. If the right later comes to an end, expires, or is exercised, the grantee must usually tell the registrar within 60 days of that event as well. The same applies where the ending or exercise is only partial. If only part of the land is released or used, the filing has to explain which part. That may sound procedural, but it serves an important public purpose. A live option, an expired pre-emption right and a partly exercised development agreement do not tell the same story about a site. Without updates, a register can leave readers guessing. With updates, the public record stands a better chance of showing what is still active and what has already run its course.

The public will begin to see the effect of these rules later. Regulation 9 says the registrar must retain the information and publish a dataset as soon as possible after 6 April 2028, with updates at least once a month after that. The registrar may correct information, or leave it out of publication, if it appears inaccurate or misleading. The published record may also include the fact that a right has ended, expired or been exercised, although concluded rights do not have to remain in every later update. There is an important privacy limit built into the scheme. Information provided about an individual grantor's date of birth and place of birth must not be published. The registrar may also place conditions on access to the dataset, including requiring a person who wants access to identify themselves first. Even with those limits, this is a notable change. If you are a resident, researcher, journalist, planner or campaigner, it should become easier to see who has a meaningful stake in land before ownership formally changes hands.

There is also a practical penalty for ignoring the new rules. Regulation 10 says the registrar may refuse to register or update a notice or restriction if not satisfied that the required contractual control information has been provided. In simple terms, a notice is an entry that flags an interest on the register, while a restriction can control what further dealings are registered. If a person wants the register to help protect their land deal, they may first have to be open about it. Signed by Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook, the Regulations may look technical on the page, and the Explanatory Note says no full impact assessment was produced because no significant impact is foreseen. Even so, the change could matter a great deal to public understanding. **What this means for you:** ownership is only part of the story of land. These rules are about making the hidden deals behind future development more visible, so communities can ask better questions earlier.