MORE than 100,000 people have backed a campaign to keep the Land Registry in public ownership.

The Government held a consultation on the future of the 150-year-old institution, which handles land and property data and employs more than 400 civil servants in Durham City, earlier this year, with critics warning privatisation, huge job cuts, loss of confidence and higher charges for the public could follow.

At the weekend, a national newspaper reported Business Secretary Vince Cable had vetoed any sell-off, said to be worth around £1.2bn, as ‘just too complicated’.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the Government would publish its response to the consultation shortly.

Now Durham City Labour MP Roberta Blackman-Woods has joined Labour’s shadow business minister Toby Perkins, leaders of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union and campaign group 38 Degrees in presenting a 100,000-name signature calling for the Registry to remain in the public sector to the Government.

Durham’s Land Registry office is said to be worth £10m a year to the local economy.

Dr Blackman-Woods said: “The Land Registry office in Durham provides many good jobs that we need locally and I don’t want this to be diminished in any way by potential privatisation.”

Previously, business minister Michael Fallon said giving the Land Registry more flexibility would allow it to support economic growth in the wider economy.