On 9 March 2026, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published its long-awaited guidance and draft regulations on contractual control agreements, alongside the government's formal response to the 2024 consultation. The Provision of Information (Contractual Control) (Registered Land) Regulations 2026 (the Regulations) will introduce a mandatory duty to disclose key information about certain land agreements to HM Land Registry, creating a new publicly accessible dataset. 

For real estate lawyers, this is a significant development and a fresh administrative burden. The regime comes into force on 6 April 2027, so there is time to prepare, but not as much as you might think.

Background

Contractual control agreements are a common feature of the real estate market in England and Wales. They enable developers and land promoters to secure rights over land without actually buying it, a way of obtaining control of land while pursuing planning permission, assembling neighbouring sites, or securing funding. 

Historically, there has been no legal requirement for these agreements to be disclosed or recorded in any standardised way. While many are routinely protected at HM Land Registry by way of a notice or restriction, the government has grown increasingly dissatisfied with the absence of a single, easily searchable record of who controls what land, and why. 

Part 11 of the Levelling‑up and Regeneration Act 2023 provided the statutory framework. Following a consultation from January to March 2024 (which drew 41 responses from developers, lawyers and local authorities), progress stalled during the 2024 General Election. However, a ministerial letter to HM Land Registry in early 2025 pushed the matter firmly back on the agenda.

What agreements are caught?

So, what is actually in scope? The regulations apply to written agreements over registered land that are intended to facilitate future development. The types of agreements in scope are broadly: option agreements, conditional contracts, pre-emption agreements, and promotion agreements and direction rights. 

To fall within scope, an agreement must involve a right to acquire the freehold or a lease of more than 15 years and must have a total control period of 18 months or more. 

The final regulations narrow the scope compared to the original consultation proposals. The minimum duration has been increased from 12 months to 18 months, and the scope has been restricted to agreements related to future development rather than agreements entered into in the last 5 years. These adjustments reflect feedback that the earlier definition could have captured routine commercial arrangements, such as assignments of occupational leases. The net has been tightened, but it is still a wide net.

What is excluded?

Equally important is what falls outside the scope. The regulations do not apply to restrictive covenants (which are generally already visible on the Register of Title) or to overage and clawback agreements, which a clear majority of consultation respondents supported excluding. Also exempt are agreements contained in contracts made for national security or defence purposes, agreements incidental to loan finance, agreements unrelated to future development, agreements with a total control period of under 18 months, and agreements contained in section 106 agreements related exclusively to infrastructure, amenities or services. Unregistered land is also excluded from the regime. In other words, if your agreement involves national security, you can breathe easy. For the rest of us, read on.

What information must be provided?

Here is where the detail starts to bite. The grantee (typically the developer, but essentially the person benefitting from the contractual control right) must ensure the following is provided to HM Land Registry: 

• The type of agreement;
• The names of the contracting parties (and, where applicable, their Companies House or Charity Commission registration numbers);
• The date of the agreement, or where the contractual control right will be exercised in the future, the date from which it can be exercised;
• Where the contractual control right is contingent on the satisfaction of conditions, details of those conditions;
• Details of the initial period of control;
• Details of any extension or termination provisions;
• The address, postcode (where relevant) and title number of the land and its extent (if it forms only part of a registered title);
• Details of any extension entitlements; and
• Details of whether the land subject to the right includes land (including airspace) held apart from the surface (although it’s not clear at this stage what this is intended to cover). 

The good news? The underlying agreement itself does not need to be disclosed, meaning that commercially sensitive financial details: the purchase price, the option premium, the overage formula, will remain confidential. 

When must information be provided?

Information must be provided to HM Land Registry within 60 days of the agreement being entered into. Updated information must also be provided within 60 days of any variation that alters the required information, any assignment of the agreement, or the termination or expiry of the whole or any part of the agreement. 

Do the regulations have retrospective effect, i.e. do they apply to existing agreements?  

The original proposals purported to capture all existing agreements entered into from 6 April 2021, five years' worth of deals, which, unsurprisingly, caused alarm. In light of these concerns, the government has narrowed the retrospective scope of the regulations. Information will now be required only in respect of rights granted on or after the date the regulations are made (date to be confirmed), and pre-existing rights that are assigned or varied (in a way that changes the required information) after the regulations come into force on 6 April 2027. So pre-commencement agreements are not entirely off the hook.

How must the information be submitted?

The regulations require that information be submitted to HM Land Registry by a conveyancer, digitally, through what HM Land Registry currently refers to in its guidance as “the required digital service”. It is unclear at this point, exactly what this will entail, and whether or not it will exist within or alongside the current Digital Registration Service. In most cases, this will form part of an existing application (for example when lodging a notice or restriction). 

What are the consequences of not providing contractual control information? 

The enforcement provisions are twofold and carry serious consequences. 

First, if the required information is not provided, HM Land Registry may refuse to register a notice or restriction in respect of the contractual control agreement against the relevant title, meaning that the developer or grantee will be unable to protect their interest on the register. 

Second, criminal offences under section 225 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 apply where the grantee, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with a requirement under the regulations, or knowingly or recklessly provides false or misleading information. The maximum penalties include up to two years' imprisonment and an unlimited fine. 

In short, this is not a regime to be taken lightly. Real estate practitioners will need to ensure that robust systems are in place to track compliance deadlines and ensure that accurate information is submitted on time, every time.

When and how will the data be published?

The whole point of this exercise, from the government’s perspective, is transparency. From April 2028 HM Land Registry will begin publishing the dataset in a freely accessible, downloadable format. The expectation is that PropTech providers will rapidly incorporate the data into analytics tools, property platforms and search systems. However, at a time when there are still lengthy delays with Land Registry applications, there is concern over how this will be resourced by the Land Registry and whether this will lead to longer delays in processing applications thereby undermining the efficacy and transparency of the Land Registry’s core function. 

Looking ahead

The regulations (currently in draft, so there is a possibility of further change) will come into force on 6 April 2027. The guidance published alongside the draft Regulations is designed to give practitioners and stakeholders adequate time to prepare. Real estate teams should begin reviewing their processes, updating precedent documents where necessary, and ensuring that fee earners are aware of the new obligations and the serious consequences of non-compliance. 

While the narrowing of the retrospective scope is a welcome concession, the regime nonetheless represents a significant new layer of regulatory obligation for anyone involved in land transactions involving contractual controls.