2011/10/23 Chris Pawley <[email protected]>: > > I think you confusing 'agricultural landowner' with 'farmer'. The > former tend to be aristocratic estates who rent their land to the > latter tenant farmer. Unfortunately the table isn't misleading, as it > illustrates the reality I was pointing to; that the majority of land > is owned by the few.
But its also true that area does not equate to value. The Clan Donald Lands Trust (20,000 acres) almost certainly owns more land than the extent of the Duke of Bedford's estate but you can betcha that the second is worth a very considerable amount more than the first. Extremely poor agricultural land occupied by crofters paying minute rents is not as fun to own as Bloomsbury. Almost a quarter of all land in England and Wales (by area) is unregistered which is a nuisance for any discussion like this. Its impressive that the 1872 return can be matched up with that to guesstimate ownership of what is left (I haven't read his methodology). On the other hand: in 8 years of practice I've had to deduce precisely 1 unregistered title. As a consultant, rather than a conveyancer, I'm only asked about the most unusual and strange cases, so I'd expect to see a higher proportion than would cross the desk of an average land lawyer. So transactionally the unregistered land doesn't show up very much, hence the carrots in the 2002 act to persuade more people to register. -- Francis Davey _______________________________________________ developers-public mailing list [email protected] https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public Unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/options/developers-public/archive%40mail-archive.com
