The Chief Executive Officer has decided to fund a temporary Land Charges Assistant position to support the migration of Local Land Charges to a central digital register.

URL: https://mansfield.moderngov.co.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=1756

Decision Maker: Chief Executive Officer

Outcome: Recommendations Approved

Is Key Decision?: No

Is Callable In?: No

Purpose: To add the post of 0.6FTE Land Charges Assistant (Temporary) to the establishment for a duration of 6 months.

Content: Change to the Establishment – Technical Support Land Charges   Delegated Decision Ref: 25/39/CEO     This post is to be fully funded through current vacancy savings and the Land Registry Project Transition Payment. Under the provisions of the Infrastructure Act 2015 His Majesty’s Land Registry (“HMLR”) is migrating Local Land Charges (LLC) from English and Welsh Local Authorities into a central digital register (“the HMLR LLC Register”). HMLR are running a programme to transfer the data and responsibility from authorities to HMLR.  MDC signed the Collaboration Agreement in December 2022 (ODR Reference 22/27/PR) and have recently signed off the final delivery programme giving an expected end migration date of September 2026.  This date is later than originally anticipated due to HMLR delays. As part of this project MDC will receive a Transition Payment from HMLR totalling £60,000 which is intended to be used to support resources such as administrative support, equipment or services required for the migration.  The Transition payment is made in 2 stages, 30% (£18,000) on formally entering service migration (due to be received in September 2025) and 70% (£42,000) after the new service goes live (September 2026) provided MDC meet agreed delivery milestones. MDC are currently in the digitisation phase of the project which involves ongoing administration, spatial capture and improvement tasks required to ensure our data is cleansed and suitable for transfer.  In addition, the Local Authority are still required to operate a fully functioning Land Charges Service up to the migration date. ODR Reference 23/53/CEO approved the employment of an apprentice for a period of 21 months (fully funded by the HMLR transition payments) to assist with the delivery of the programme and the provision of the service.  This apprenticeship comes to an end in September 2025 and will leave just one officer in the Land Charges role to run the service and carry out any additional tasks for the HMLR project.   Due to a 0.6 FTE leaving the Land Charges Officer role in January 2024 and the Land Charges Assistant taking on 0.4FTE on a temporary basis, there is a current vacancy saving of 0.2FTE.  This vacancy has been held as there is uncertainty over what roles/duties will be required once migration has taken place.   The vacancy saving equates to £6,615.00 for 25/26 financial year.   Additionally, there is a current balance of £17,338.00 in the HMLR grant budget following the costs of the apprenticeship and planned IT upgrades and licences required for the project.  It is proposed to use £3,236.70 of this to add to the vacancy saving to fund the proposed 0.6FTE Temporary Land Charges Assistant for a 6-month period.  This will leave a balance of £14,101.30 to fund any additional resources that may be required prior to migration in September 2026.   Costs (including on costs) have been calculated as £9,851.70 for the 6-month temporary contract which are proposed to be covered by the vacancy saving and a portion of the balance of the HMLR grant as detailed above.   There are currently no alternative options for this post.  There is only 1 other officer in Land Charges working 0.9FTE which is currently assisted by an apprentice, however, this apprenticeship ends in September and therefore the post is required for the reasons above.

Date of Decision: August 29, 2025