Braintree District Council’s Local Land Charges (LLC) team has made the shortlist for the Best Performing Local Land Charges Department award at the 2023 Land Data Awards for Excellence, it has been announced.
The awards recognise excellence and achievement in the profession. The judging panel assesses NLIS Hub data collected between October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022 on electronic turnaround times, the level of overdue searches, search accuracy and volumes, which are weighted against transactional volumes for the authority’s area. The results are combined and ranked to create the shortlist.
The Local Land Charges team at Braintree District Council manages thousands of land and property searches each year and is an essential part of the home buying and selling process for residents.
The team consists of two members of staff and the search turnaround times are within two working days of receipt, ahead of the Government target of ten days. The team have improved search delivery time by streamlining the search processes, with all search documents and payments undertaken electronically.
Cllr John McKee, Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Transformation at Braintree District Council, said: “It is great news and very positive to see that our local land charges team has been shortlisted for this award, recognising them for their dedication.
“The team have been working exceptionally hard over the last few years and have provided an excellent and reliable service to our residents. This is the second year running Braintree has been shortlisted for the award, which is a huge achievement for a small District Council.
“This team play a very important role in the home purchase process and it is excellent to see that their hard work has been acknowledged.”
Fiona Barron, Chief Executive of Land Data, said: “Local Land Charge teams are the unsung heroes of the home buying and selling process – often going out of their way to supply essential information that could affect the future use or development of a property. During these difficult economic times acknowledging achievement and recognising excellence in the profession, is more important than ever.”
The awards for Best Performing Local Land Charges Department, sponsored by NLIS, will be announced at the Land Data Local Land Charges Awards for Excellence on Tuesday, 28 March at The Bristol Hotel, Bristol.
Since their launch in 2008, the annual Local Land Charges Awards for Excellence remain the only national awards celebrating the achievements and successes of local authority local land charges departments across England and Wales.
