Residents to benefit from land charges upgrade

STRATFORD District Council is investing £315,000 modernising its land charges system to improve the service for residents.

The system provides important information for residents completing searches for house purchases. The project will see new software introduced and the system fully digitised, enabling council staff to increase efficiency while reducing turnaround time for search requests.

Councillor Daren Pemberton, planning and building services said: “While the current system has served us well for many years, it has not kept pace with the increasing volume and complexity of search requests. These can currently take eight weeks or more to process, so this investment is a vital step towards meeting our residents’ needs by achieving our service standard of turning around requests in ten working days. Buying and selling a house can be a stressful experience and this investment will ensure we provide a smooth, efficient and quick service during that time.”