Land Registry
Debate between Earl of Courtown and Lord Rooker
The Earl of Courtown
My Lords, I am not sure I have any relationship with William the Conqueror. Seriously, the noble Lord asked a number of questions but in essence asked why we are doing this. As he is aware, the Government continually review all their assets to ensure that public services operate efficiently and effectively for the taxpayer. A sale of part or all of the Land Registry operations is expected to deliver a capital receipt for the Government. That can be invested elsewhere for the benefit of the taxpayer. Where there is no strong policy reason for continued public ownership of an asset, it is right that the Government look at the merits of sale.
Lord Rooker (Lab)
My Lords, why cannot the Land Registry do more to stop London becoming the money-laundering capital of Europe by at least ensuring that all property transactions—all of them, but particularly from abroad—have the beneficial owner listed rather than just corporate ownership, as is the case with properties purchased by companies inside the UK, so that it is fair for all? Lastly, why can it not publish all the purchase prices of properties where they are purchased from abroad? It publishes only 70% of the purchase prices of properties purchased from abroad and that leaves us, as a country, wide open to massive money-laundering.
The Earl of Courtown
The noble Lord makes some very interesting points. He must also be aware that we are going to have this open and public consultation in which he will have the opportunity to make those points.
Commercial Debt: Late Payments
Debate between Earl of Courtown and Lord Rooker
The Earl of Courtown
My noble friend is quite right that support has to be given to small producers and SMEs in this instance. As far as more powers for the adjudicator are concerned, I feel that those will be part of the performance review. However, if there is anything more that I can add to that, I will write to my noble friend.
Lord Rooker (Lab)
Does the code cover the cases that I came across in my early days as a Minister, where big companies did not just squeeze their suppliers but found out who the suppliers to their suppliers were and squeezed them, too? The big companies know they have the supplier over a barrel, and the suppliers do not complain about it because they are scared stiff. This is not a straightforward A to B; it is A jumping over B to get to the supplier’s supplier and squeeze them as well.
The Earl of Courtown
The noble Lord is quite right. I do not know the answer to his question, I am afraid, but I will write to him. It goes back to the issue that I talked about before, where SMEs are being squeezed at both ends of the job. They are being squeezed by the people they have to buy from, sometimes they have to pay money upfront, and if they find that they have to pay 90 days later, they are being squeezed by their customers.