The Provision of Information (Contractual Control) (Registered Land) Regulations 2026 were made on 8 June 2026 under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 and will come into force on 6 April 2027. The draft instrument was approved by both Houses of Parliament under the procedure required by section 252(4) of the 2023 Act. It applies across England and Wales and creates a new duty to supply information on certain land control arrangements to the Chief Land Registrar. In practical terms, the Regulations move information about land control agreements into a formal filing and publication regime. For landowners, developers, promoters and advisers, the change matters because rights that often sit behind the scenes of future development will now have to be reported and, in due course, disclosed through a public dataset.
According to regulation 3, the regime applies to relevant contractual rights that are in writing and are not excluded by the Schedule. The four main categories are options to require a future transfer or long lease, conditional rights to compel a future disposition, rights of pre-emption, and rights allowing the grantee to direct or request that the proprietor disposes of the land to another person or to the grantee. The rights must relate to a qualifying estate, meaning a registered estate other than a leasehold with fewer than 15 years left to run when the right is created. The relevant disposition is either a transfer of the legal estate or the grant of a lease for 15 years or more. That keeps the regime focused on material control over registered land rather than short occupational arrangements.
The exclusions are central to understanding the reach of the instrument. The Schedule removes rights used for national security or defence, rights that are necessary or incidental to lending and certain payment obligations owed to former owners, and rights with a total period of control of less than 18 months. It also excludes rights held exclusively for purposes unrelated to future development that would result in one or more dwelling-houses or a building of at least 100 square metres, together with section 106 rights that relate only to infrastructure, amenities or services linked to planning permission. The practical effect is that the disclosure duty is aimed chiefly at development land control arrangements, not every contractual restriction affecting land.
The main compliance duties sit in regulations 4, 5 and 6. From 6 April 2027, the grantee of a contractual control right must provide the required information within 60 days of the grant of the right, its assignment, or any written variation that changes the reportable details. If the right later determines, expires or is exercised, whether in whole or in part, a further update must also be filed within 60 days, with partial events identified by reference to the affected land. The transitional rule is especially important. If a qualifying right was granted on or after 8 June 2026 but before the commencement date, the information must still be filed by 6 October 2027. Regulation 5 also ties the duty to applications for a notice or restriction, including some rights granted before the grantor became the registered proprietor of the estate that is later protected on the register.
Regulation 7 requires the information to be sent by a conveyancer using the registrar's digital channels for applications affecting the register of title. The registrar may waive those requirements where insisting on a conveyancer or a digital route would be unreasonable. A separate waiver is available where the grantee cannot reasonably be expected to provide the grantor's date and place of birth. For transaction teams, the new duty will sit alongside ordinary land registration work rather than apart from it. Developers and promoters will need records that can be handed to conveyancers quickly, while conveyancers will need to check at an early stage whether an option, pre-emption right or similar arrangement falls within the regime before seeking or updating register protection.
Regulation 8 sets out a detailed data return. It covers the parties' names, identifying numbers for companies or other legal persons where relevant, the type of right, the contract date and description, when the right can first be exercised or the conditions that trigger it, the period of control and any extension or termination rights, the title number, and sufficient details to identify the land affected. The filing must also state the address and postcode where available, and whether the land includes airspace or other land held apart from the surface. One privacy safeguard is written into the scheme. Where the grantor is an individual, their date of birth and place of birth must be supplied to the registrar, but regulation 9 prevents publication of that item. The public record is therefore intended to show who controls land and for how long without placing that personal data into the published dataset.
Publication does not begin immediately. Under regulation 9, the registrar must retain the submitted information and publish a dataset as soon as possible after 6 April 2028, with updates at least once a month. The registrar may correct or withhold information that appears incorrect or misleading, may add a note that a right has determined, expired or been exercised, and may impose access conditions on those requesting the published material, including a requirement to identify themselves. The enforcement mechanism appears in regulation 10 and a linked amendment to rule 72 of the Land Registration Rules 2003. If the registrar is not satisfied that the reporting duty has been met, a notice or restriction connected to the contractual control right may be refused or left unamended. The explanatory note says no full impact assessment was prepared because no significant effect is foreseen, but the operational burden is clear. Parties with rights created from 8 June 2026 should identify them well before the April and October 2027 deadlines.