Consultation on compulsory purchase - compensation reforms

Overview

Compulsory purchase is the power to acquire land and property without the consent of the owner. It is an important tool for assembling land needed to help deliver social, environmental and economic change.

The Government’s High Street Strategy, published in July 2021, emphasised the role of compulsory purchase as a catalyst for regeneration in town centres and high streets which are seeing persistent long-term empty properties, and where there are complex and fragmented land ownership patterns. The Levelling Up White Paper published in February 2022 made it clear that we want local communities to be empowered to take the lead and ensure they have the tools to succeed.

To facilitate this, we want to see a faster, more efficient compulsory purchase system that acquiring authorities are confident in using and that produces the right outcomes to bring forward much needed development including for housing, regeneration and infrastructure. We are therefore, bringing forward reforms to help streamline and modernise the process for compulsory purchase orders (CPO) and to give local authorities in England clearer enabling powers to use CPO for regeneration purposes. These measures are in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill which is currently being considered by Parliament and include:

1. the introduction of conditional confirmations of CPOs;
2. the ability for compulsory purchase powers under CPOs to be exercised within a longer period than three years;
3. giving inspectors the ability to choose the appropriate procedure to confirm a CPO;
4. provisions to digitalise the CPO process; and
5. clarification that the compulsory purchase powers of a local authority include using those powers for regeneration purposes.

At the same time, we also want to ensure that schemes that need to rely on compulsory purchase are viable and deliver the benefits that are necessary in the public interest. We are therefore also proposing to make changes to the compensation provisions associated with compulsory purchase where valuation takes into account prospective planning permission. This consultation seeks your views on a specific proposal in this respect.