The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) has called on the government to consult on legislation requiring local authorities to provide open and free access to property information.

In a ‘manifesto’ published last week, CoPSO said councils were arbitrarily restricting access to data and ‘urgent action’ is needed to ensure consumers get a better service.

A survey of its members revealed that only one in five local authorities provide full open access to data.

The organisation, which represents search companies, claimed it is impossible to carry out a full personal search of the public register in 80% of local authorities.

CoPSO chief executive Kate Nicholls said the results of its research show that government regulations introduced in 2009 to improve access had been ineffective.

She said: ‘Five years ago the Office of Fair Trading said homebuyers and sellers were not well served by the market. It found that councils were arbitrarily restricting access to data which should be freely available to homebuyers, and called for equal access for all.’

‘Five years on and the situation is depressingly the same – access is still limited, prices are still too high, services are still discriminatory,’ said Nicholls.

Jan Boothroyd, chief executive of Land Data, which regulators NLIS (national land information service) said all authorities allowed a search of the public register, but the issue was whether they also allowed access to all the information required for the CON29 form.

She said: ‘It’s because of the diverse nature of the information required in the form that it is difficult to get that information,’ she said.

Boothroyd added: ‘At the moment, in the only piece of case law we have on this (OneSearch Direct v City of York Council [2010] EWHC 590 (Admin)), the judge said "I do not consider that the council is obliged to allow open access to all of its unrefined property information"’.

Paul Marsh, Law Society lead spokesman on property, said: ‘Solicitors want accurate authoritative information. We don’t mind who we get it from, so long as we get it quickly.’