New land control disclosure rules start in April 2027

Some of the most powerful land deals happen before the public sees any sale, planning notice or building work. A company or investor may not own a site, but a contract can still give them a strong say over whether the land is sold, to whom, and on what terms. That is what the Provision of Information (Contractual Control) (Registered Land) Regulations 2026 are trying to address. Made on 8 June 2026 and signed by Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook, the Regulations come into force on 6 April 2027 and apply in England and Wales. Their main purpose is straightforward: people who hold certain contractual control rights over registered land will have to give information about those rights to the registrar, and much of that information will later be published. **What this means:** land can be controlled long before ownership changes, and these rules are meant to make that control easier to see.

The phrase 'contractual control right' is technical, but the idea is not impossible to follow. The Regulations cover several kinds of written rights. One is an option, where the right-holder can require the owner to enter into a sale or other qualifying disposal. Another is a right to enforce a disposal once stated conditions have been met. A third is a right of pre-emption, where the owner must offer the land first to a particular person before selling elsewhere. The fourth covers rights to tell or ask the owner to dispose of the land to someone else, or sometimes to the right-holder themselves. The rules are aimed at rights over a 'qualifying estate' in registered land. That excludes a leasehold title with fewer than 15 years left at the moment the right is created. The Regulations are also focused on serious transactions, not every private promise about land. A 'relevant disposition' here means a transfer of the legal estate or the grant of a lease for 15 years or more. **What this means in practice:** the law is trying to catch contracts that can shape the future of a site in a meaningful way.

The duty to report usually falls on the person who benefits from the right, called the grantee. Under regulation 4, that person must provide the required information to the registrar within 60 days of certain events that happen on or after 6 April 2027. Those events include the grant of the right, the assignment of it to someone else, and a written variation that changes the reportable details. There is also a transition period, which matters because some agreements will already exist before the rules start. If a contractual control right is granted between 8 June 2026, when the Regulations were made, and 6 April 2027, when they come into force, the information must be provided before 6 October 2027. Regulation 5 also says that if someone applies for a notice or restriction in relation to one of these rights, they must provide the information at that point as well. That can even catch certain rights granted before the grantor was the registered proprietor, if a notice or restriction is later sought against the title.

The Regulations are quite strict about how the information is sent. In most cases, it must be provided by a conveyancer using the digital channels made available by the registrar for Land Registry applications. In other words, this is not designed as an informal filing system. It is meant to sit inside the normal professional machinery of land registration. There is, however, some room for flexibility. If the registrar thinks it would be unreasonable to insist on a conveyancer or on the usual digital route, those requirements can be waived. The registrar can also waive the requirement to provide the grantor's date and place of birth if the grantee cannot reasonably be expected to supply that information. And the rules avoid pointless duplication: if the information has already been provided in line with the Regulations, it does not have to be filed again by someone else.

What has to be disclosed is more detailed than just a name and a title number. Regulation 8 requires the full names of the grantor and grantee, and where either party is a company, partnership or other legal person, identifying registration details must also be given. Where the grantor is an individual, their date of birth and place of birth must be supplied to the registrar. The filing must also explain the right itself. That includes the type of contractual control right, the date of the contract, the parties to it, and its title or other description. If the right can be exercised from a particular date, that date must be given. If it depends on stated contractual conditions being met first, those conditions must be described. The filing must then set out the initial period of control, any rights to extend it, any rights to terminate it, the title number of the affected estate, the address and postcode where available, whether only part of the land is affected, and whether the land includes airspace or other land held apart from the surface. This is meant to show not just that a right exists, but how long it may last and how widely it may reach.

The reporting duty does not end once a right has been logged. If the right is completely or partly determined, expires, or is exercised, the grantee must normally tell the registrar within 60 days. They must say which of those events has happened, whether it is complete or partial, and, if only part of the land is affected, give enough detail to identify that part. There is also a clear practical consequence for non-compliance. Regulation 10 allows the registrar to refuse to register or update a notice or restriction that appears to relate to a contractual control right if the registrar is not satisfied that the information requirements have been met. That matters because notices and restrictions can be important ways of protecting rights on the register. **Why this matters:** if a party wants the benefit of formal registration machinery, the law is now tying that more closely to transparency.

For many readers, the biggest change is not the filing itself but the fact that the data will be published. Regulation 9 says the registrar must retain all contractual control information and must publish a dataset containing it as soon as possible after 6 April 2028. After that, updated information must be published at least once a month. The publication duty is not absolute. If the registrar believes information is incorrect or misleading, it can be corrected or left out. The registrar may add details showing that a right has already ended, expired or been exercised, but does not have to continue publishing ended rights in later updates. Crucially, the registrar must not publish the grantor's date of birth or place of birth. The registrar may also place conditions on access to the published dataset, including requiring a person asking for access to identify themselves first. So the system becomes more open, but some private data stays protected.

The Schedule to the Regulations also shows that not every land contract is being dragged into public view. Rights connected with national security or defence are excluded. Certain rights that are necessary or incidental to loans, financial instruments, or payments owed to former owners are also left out. So are rights held only for purposes unrelated to future development that would create homes or a building with 100 square metres or more of floorspace. Rights with a total period of control of less than 18 months are exempt, as are some section 106 agreement rights that deal only with infrastructure, amenities or services linked to planning permission. Taken together, these rules are about making hidden influence over land easier to track, especially where future development may be in play. For local communities, researchers, journalists, buyers and campaigners, that could make it easier to understand why a site has been tied up, by whom, and for how long. The explanatory note says no full impact assessment was produced because no significant effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. Even so, this is a meaningful shift. When information that once sat inside private contracts starts moving into a published dataset, the balance between secrecy and public knowledge changes with it.