It was reported in the Socialist on 1 May that the Land Registry, the government body that maintains a register of freehold and leasehold land across England and Wales, was considering new private sector business models.
Management have now announced to staff that they have recommended to the minster for Land Registry (Michael Fallon MP) that Land Registry should move from its current public sector trading fund status to ‘GovCo’ status.
In effect this would be a private company either wholly or partly owned by government. Fallon supports this move.
PCS Land Registry group vice-president and Socialist Party member Dave Lunn spoke to us in a personal capacity and said: “Although the news was not unexpected, it has left our members extremely worried about their futures.
“At this stage it is unclear exactly what such a move would mean for our members’ jobs, their workplaces or terms and conditions, but what is clear is that a move towards the private sector can only be a bad thing.
“We are also concerned that this will mean that the Land Registry will move away from its public service ethos and become merely a facilitator for the market and big business.
“PCS representatives will be meeting in Brighton this week to discuss this issue, what it could mean for members and perhaps most importantly how we fight it. We will need to develop a broad campaign that fights this attack on all fronts, but it is clear to me that central to any campaign must be the threat and delivery of industrial action”.
PCS has shown that it is one of the most campaigning unions around and it is clear that a massive member-led campaign will be needed if they are to defeat what is seen by many as the first step towards the full privatisation of a vital public service.
