Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: The UK Government has launched a consultation setting out plans to improve the transparency of trust information as part of decisive action to ensure greater transparency and tackle corruption in the property sector.
Land ownership through a trust means someone legally owns and manages the land on behalf of the true owner and beneficiary. Currently, the identity of the beneficiary is not always recorded or publicly available, potentially leading to secrecy or corruption in the sector.
The new plans will mean residents, the media and the public will be able to find out more about who owns land and property, who can control it and receives financial benefit from it, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Department for Business and Trade said in a statement on December 27.
The changes will make it as easy as possible for people to access all land and property ownership data across the range of different public registers, providing as much free and readily available information as possible, the statement added.
Under the current system, His Majesty’s Land Registry (HMLR) records on a public register the legal owners of land. It does not, however, record the details of anyone behind the legal owner who may be able to control, or derive economic benefit from, that land. If the legal owner is a company or a trustee, there is no way of knowing from the land registry who is behind it.
Greater transparency will help tackle illicit finance and corruption in the system, with offshore trusts in the UK property sector identified as posing a higher risk of money laundering.
Transactions made using offshore corporate structures or offshore trusts in the UK property sector have been identified as posing a higher risk of money laundering, according to the National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing 2020.
