§ Sir M. Sueterasked the Attorney-General whether he will extend the benefits of compulsory registration of title by bringing more districts or counties within the scope of His Majesty's Land Registry, particularly those areas near populous centres where slum clearances and re-housing have created a considerable rebuilding and where the use of the Land Registry is at present only optional?
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe Land Registration Act, 1925, authorises the making of an Order for the compulsory registration of land on sale to be made as respects any county or part of a country, but it would not be in the interests either of economic administration or of convenience to those buying and selling land to exercise this power as regards only a part of a county except in very exceptional circumstances, and it would not be practicable to pick out merely isolated areas where considerable rebuilding is taking place. Building developments, however, and the use of the voluntary1240W provisions of the Act which frequently follows on building development, are constantly studied by my Noble Friend the Lord Chancellor with a view to considering the question of initiating orders under Section 120 of the Act, though, as I have pointed out in answer to previous questions, it is not possible to make substantial progress except where a mapping survey has been recently completed.