The register of property ownership held by the Land Registry is open to the public to view. This means that anyone can research who owns what, although subject to the caveat that much ownership of properties is held by companies whose ownership may be obscure, trusts etc. See overseas entities. There has been a fee to obtain information such as title register of £3 plus another £3 for title plans.
Now, suddenly, as from 9 December 2024, those fees have more than doubled to £7 each. This will undoubtedly mean that fewer people will search for information and more ownership of properties will, in practice, remain undisclosed. For example, I recently researched the strange ownership of two surf lodges in Newquay, where individual rooms have been sold on sub-leases to many different Russian citizens and overseas companies of undisclosed ownership. To do so, I had to purchase about 50 title registers at £3 each. If the cost had been £7 each, I almost certainly would not have done so.
There is no doubt that this increase in fees will lead to fewer searches of the Land Registry and more dubious ownerships of properties will go under the radar.