Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will take steps to introduce an ownership transparency register for land and buildings in town centres.

This is an area in which there is already a high level of transparency. HM Land Registry holds publicly accessible records of the registered proprietors of land and buildings in England and Wales.

If the registered proprietor is a UK company or an overseas entity, information about the company and its people with significant control, or, in the case of an overseas entity, its beneficial owners, is publicly available from Companies House.

Further measures to enhance land transparency are being brought forward by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities via the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, currently passing through Parliament.