Law Commission consultation on compulsory purchase

We invite consultees’ views on how well the amendments to the provisions on advance payments, introduced by the Housing and Planning Act 2016 to require and enable earlier payment by acquiring authorities, are working in practice. Have they led to payments being made early enough to be of practical use to claimants? If not, why not?

We invite consultees’ views as to whether the model claim form introduced by Government in 2017 has helped to improve the quality of information provided to acquiring authorities sufficient to enable proper consideration of advance payment requests.

We invite consultees’ views as to whether there are any problems with the operation of basic and occupier’s loss payments in the Land Compensation Act 1973.

We provisionally propose that individuals without a compensatable interest who are disturbed from agricultural land should be eligible for a mandatory disturbance payment rather than merely a discretionary payment.

Do consultees agree?

Currently, interest runs from the date when the subject land vests in the authority or, if earlier, the date when the authority takes possession of the land. We provisionally propose that for losses other than market value of the subject land and severance or injurious affection, the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) should have a discretion to determine a different date from which interest runs (if not agreed between the parties).

Do consultees agree?

We invite consultees’ views on problems arising with the operation of the existing arrangements for interest in the context of compensation for compulsory purchase.

Are there any other points consultees might wish to draw to our attention (not covered in their answers to any other questions) relating to the rules governing the assessment of compensation for a compulsory purchase?