Land Registry statistics issued this year show that 43 per cent of land across Shropshire remains unregistered, leaving it without ownership guaranteed by the state and possibly causing costly delays for landowners wishing to mortgage or sell that land in the future.

Yet according to Oswestry property lawyer, Richard Lloyd, the problem can be resolved very simply by voluntary registration.

“Voluntary land registration allows landowners to be in charge of their assets and manage them more effectively now and in the long term,” says Richard, a partner with law firm Gwilym Hughes & Partners.

“By consolidating complex legal information or historic data about their land, owners are better able to protect it.”

Richard believes some landowners may be under the misapprehension that when they register for subsidies with the Rural Payments Agency they are simultaneously registering their land with Land Registry. This is however not the case.

Neither department, he explained, is allowed under data protection laws to share information and, as each collects different information about the land, they do not work to the same maps.

“Land Registry is only concerned with the legality and rights of the land,” says Richard.

“You register the entirety of your land with Land Registry to protect your title against adverse possession claims.”

“Whilst DEFRA has recently extended that which is considered to be for agricultural use it may not include all the land you own, such as your house for example, so registering in entirety is essential.”