Experiences of Compulsory Purchase

Andrew Streeter’s notes

An Amateur’s View

I have always thought compulsory purchase is nothing more than legalized robbery.

On this estate we have had many occasions when we have been served CP orders (mostly
to our disadvantage). They have consisted of :

Housing Land Sewers, Water Pipes & Gas Mains

I agree it is reasonable to serve CPO Notices for public utilities but it makes no sense for
compensation payments to be so different. Very little compensation for water, not much
better for sewers but gas is very generous, paying full market rates.

Motorways are a tremendous burden to any landowner very intrusive ie. light, noise,
severance of land, etc. They cut up blocks of land into small parcels and no compensation
pays for what is left.

Payment is very slow though new legislation was meant to make this quicker ie. 90° in the
start of the construction but even this is difficult to achieve.

You are paid interest on unpaid monies but tax is deducted before payment.

When the M11 first came through our lands in the early 1970s they were so slow in
paying that the interest came to more than the principal and we were compensated for
about 70 % of the land value at that time.

Motorways for private use advantage are still not compensated for properly. This arose
when the new motorway access to Stansted Airport was paid for by British Airports
Authorithy for their use and advantage. Compensation was still the usual lowly amount.

All private utility companies have CPO powers.

Airports which are now private companies have inherited powers of CPO front from
when they were in public ownership. Stansted when it was expanded in the 1980s even
had an extra Act of Parliament to make sure landowners were well and truly robbed.
Existing use value plus £1,000 was the “take or leave it” compensation and now the land
we owned has two hotels, car parks developed on it, earning millions of pounds for BAA.
The motorway service area CPO was much the same, taken for very little and then sold on
to the operator at ten times the price paid. It is interesting that they are now putting a
large hotel in the site and as it’s within 10 years of the CPO being completed, we are
entitled to go back and claim further compensation.

What benefits has the estate had? Certainly none from any CPO operation. It has been
said that extra benefits are in land developed for housing or industrial use but this is not
directly as a result of airport development.

In 1973, fifty acres were developed for the expansion of Bishop’s Stortford. The District
Council tried to CPO this land but failed in their attempt and it was part of the first
expansion of Bishop’s Stortford.

In 1985, a consortium was formed of local landowners to develop a further three hundred
acres but there were enormous infrastructure costs attached to this development and it
took nine years of planning and enquiries to achieve. The costs attached to this
development were a bypass costing £16 million; sewers, internal roads; land given for
affordable housing; school sites; surgeries; a church and out of the three hundred acres
only ninety-five were for housing with the balance being for open space.

A fund had to be set up for management of the open space and also large amounts of
money had to be given for improvement to the town centre. While you do appear to get a
lot of money for development land, all the extra costs and then taxation make a big
demand on land sales.

Conclusion :

You can see from the map attached to the Farm Summary that the land on this estate is
very close to urban areas. You do get some advantages in letting properties and developing
industrial units but the pressures from the local population and the enormous amount of
traffic on the roads make the management of the farm extremely difficult.

These complications certainly involve employing an extra man because if the distance
travelled and the difficulties in accessing farm areas. Farm tractors are often held up on
the roads and even the risk of an accident is higher because of the large volumes of
impatient drivers about.

Owning land near to urban areas has the advantages of increased property values and
better opportunities to let house / industrial units. The fact that the land comes for
development makes the fund available for reinvestment in additional land using the
advantage of roll-over and deferring the payment of capital gains tax. Over the last thirty
years, this estate has lost over five hundred acres but has also been able to buy another
fifteen hundred acres of farmland in the area. This has helped to keep the farms viable.
Not all this land was sold at enhanced value as the land taken for the airport, motorways
and motorway service area were CPO’d.

We really do envy our farming friends who have a nice block of land within a ring fence
and the farm centred in the middle, who don’t have to go onto the public road system.

Maybe we will move one day.

I believe this paper should have been headed surviving, amongst motorways and airports
rather than thriving.