Public sector unions have reacted furiously to plans to cut almost 1,500 jobs at the Land Registry and close five of its regional offices.

The Registry has confirmed in a consultation document published today that branches in Peterborough, Portsmouth, Croydon, Stevenage, and Tunbridge Wells are set to close. A further two offices in Plymouth will merge and staff in the London office will move into temporary accommodation.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said that the cuts, first revealed in The Times, will affect almost one in five registry workers. Approximately 1,100 jobs are threatened by the closures while a further 400 jobs in HR, facilities and 14 regional file stores are likely to be affected by a proposed privatisation of these divisions, the PCS said.

The Land Registry has been earmarked by the Government as part of proposals to sell-off £16 billion of public assets to raise cash.

The department has made losses over recent months, which it attributed to the decline in housing market activity.

In a consultation document outlining the cost-cutting proposals, Peter Collis, chief executive, said the department is expected to make a trading loss of about £8 million and a total loss of £61million in 2009-10, with restructuring and re-organisation costs accounting for about £38 million of the total.

As a result of the weak outlook, the document said: "We have too many staff for current workloads and for those we expect in the future when the market recovers."

The total workforce has already shrunk to about 6,500 in England and Wales after a recent round of redundancies that has seen more than 1,000 workers lose their jobs, the PCS said.

The union said it would campaign against the plans. It said that while staff had expected an announcement, the scale of the measures announced today would come as a shock.

Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: “Staff are shocked and angry about these plans. With 1,700 jobs already gone there is a real danger that services to the public will suffer as the agency is cut to the bone. Added to jobs cuts and office closures, staff have the double whammy of privatisation hanging over their heads.

"Experience shows that privatisation isn’t the silver bullet to save costs and often provides poor value to the taxpayer with corners cut in a bid to turn a profit. The Government need to recognise that putting hard working civil and public servants on the dole at a time of economic uncertainty will only prolong the recession in the communities affected.”