The Contractual Control Register: A new era in land assembly

In the latest move towards greater transparency in UK land ownership and control, the government has published draft regulations to create a new, open register of “contractual control rights” affecting registered land in England and Wales. The regulations will require the registration of detailed information about many options, pre-emptions, conditional sale contracts and promotion agreements which are entered into for development purposes, and which give the developer or promoter long-term control over the affected registered land, without an immediate transfer of ownership.

In this article, we summarise what we know so far about The Provision of Information (Contractual Control) (Registered Land) Regulations 2026 (the regulations), which are due to be made before parliamentary recess this year and to come into force on 6 April 2027, and explore the implications of the new register for developers and promoters.

Which agreements will have to be registered?

Under the draft regulations, any written agreement which creates a “contractual control right” must be registered on the new Contractual Control Register, unless it's exempt. 

In broad terms, contractual control rights are rights under one of four specified categories of written agreement to require a landowner with a qualifying estate (a registered freehold or leasehold estate with at least 15 years left on the lease) to sell, or to grant a lease for a minimum 15 year term, all or part of their land. This is called a relevant disposition.

The four specified categories of written agreement are options, conditional sale contracts, pre-emption agreements and agreements under which one party can direct the other landowning party to enter into a relevant disposition with a third party. Promotion agreements often fall into this last category. 

To qualify as “contractual control rights,” the rights must also:

• Be held by the beneficiary:
  • For the purposes of an undertaking, meaning a business, charity or public office/function.
  • For development purposes. The relevant option, conditional contract, pre-emption or promotion agreement must be entered into in connection with a proposed development comprising one or more dwellings or buildings with floorspace of at least 100 square metres.
• Be exercisable at least 18 months or more after the date of the relevant agreement. Short term options, conditional contracts, pre-emptions and promotion agreements with a total lifespan of under 18 months are not caught. 

The regulations exempt certain agreements from registration. These include contractual control rights created for national security purposes or to secure a loan or overage. 

What information must be provided?

Registration requires the provision of detailed information about the contractual control right to the Land Registry (HMLR), including: 

1. Contract identifiers: the date, parties to and description of the agreement creating the contractual control right
2. Grantor and beneficiary identifiers: details of the grantor and beneficiary of the right (including where relevant dates and places of birth and company numbers)
3. Key contract terms: in the case of options, conditional contracts and promotion agreements, details of the earliest date from which the right can be exercised and any conditions to the exercise of the right, and for all agreements details of the period over which the right will be exercisable, any provisions to extend that period, and any termination rights
4. Property: the title number of the property which is the subject of the contractual control right and, where only part of the title is affected, sufficient details to identify the affected part

From April 2028 onwards, this dataset will be published by HMLR, on at least a monthly basis. However, not all information will be made public. Certain sensitive fields (eg dates of birth) will be collected for verification purposes but won't be published. 

How and when will the information be provided?

Submissions must be made by an individually regulated conveyancer acting on behalf of the grantee (usually the developer or promoter). HMLR will launch a service to provide the information on 6 April 2027. 
Once the regulations come into force, the registration requirement will apply each time a contractual control right is granted, assigned to a new party, or varied in writing. Assignments or variations of contractual control rights themselves created after the regulations come into force will require the updating of the information held at HMLR (unless, in the case of a variation, it doesn't alter any of that information).

Assignments or variations of contractual control rights created before the regulations come into force will trigger the initial registration of the contractual control right. The deadline for providing information to HMLR about these events is 60 calendar days after the event takes place. There's also a duty to notify HMLR if the right is exercised, terminated or expires, whether wholly or partially.

Under transitional provisions, if you're entering into an agreement creating a contractual control right after the regulations are made but before they come into force, you must submit the required information within 6 months of the regulations coming into force. 

Sanctions

There are both criminal and proprietary penalties for non-compliance; a developer or promoter who fails to register a contractual control right may be unable to protect that right against future owners of the affected land by notice or restriction on the affected title.

What does this mean for developers and promoters?

Getting this wrong could be very costly to the developer/promoter and disrupt the land assembly process, as the developer/promoter might be unable to enforce their right to buy against an incoming landowner. In the worst-case scenario, the developer/promoter could face a fine or even a prison sentence. So, developers and promoters will need to ensure they put in place processes to track the lifespan of their land assembly agreements and to notify their legal teams when something happens which will trigger the provision of information to HMLR. Once the regulations are made, promoters and developers entering into contractual control agreements will need to take steps to understand what information they'll be required to provide and prepare the data for collection and submission.

The effect of the new register on the operation of the market remains to be seen, but greater transparency may both increase competition between developers/promoters and push up land prices, as landowners gain greater visibility on the strategic importance of their land to wider schemes. 

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