Advice to David Gavin

Back to list

Enquiry

From
David Gavin
Date advice given
22 October 2010
Enquiry type
Email

My question is "can a Compulsory Purchase Order be applied for at the same time as the application to the IPC and determined in parallel with the application."

Advice given

In response to your enquiry, an order for compulsory acquisition of land must be submitted as an accompanying document to the order for development consent. I have provided three links below to some of the guidance notes/statutory instruments we have available on our website as I feel they may be of use to you.

  1. Application Form Guidance.

http://infrastructure.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/applicationformguidance.pdf

I would like to draw your attention to the following section from this guidance note;

Box 13: Compulsory acquisition of land or an interest in land or right over land

  1. Where an applicant intends to compulsorily acquire land, an interest in land or rights over land, information relating to this must be set out within a statement of reasons, a funding statement and a book of reference. These documents must be submitted at the same time, and as part of, the application for an order to grant development consent.
  2. The statement of reasons must set out the reasoning for why the compulsory acquisition, etc, being applied for is necessary to enable the proposed development to proceed. A funding statement must be included that contains sufficient information which will enable the Commission to be satisfied that, if it was to grant the compulsory acquisition request, the proposed development is likely to be undertaken and not be prevented due to difficulties in sourcing the necessary funding. This is necessary because it is not appropriate for people’s ownership of land, interest in land or rights over land to be compulsorily taken from them, if there is doubt as to whether the development will proceed after those rights, etc, have been taken away.
  3. The book of reference must be in the format, and contain the required information, that is set out in regulation 7 of the Applications Regulations. By producing the document in this format, and containing the addresses for service, it will aid the applicant in fulfilling its duties of notifying and engaging with the persons affected by the proposed compulsory acquisition. It also means the applicant will only have to submit further information about the affected persons to the Commission, after the application has been accepted, if any of that information has changed since it was first submitted. This is because the Commission will otherwise already be in receipt of the information it needs to then inform specified persons of their right to request a compulsory acquisition hearing. This obligation on the Commission is set out in section 92 of the Planning Act 2008.
  4. Note that, unlike with other infrastructure consent regimes, compulsory purchase order schedules are not to be used by the applicant. Instead, the applicant must submit a book of reference, as explained above. Provisions relating to an applicant’s compulsory acquisition proposals are to be included within the draft development consent order.
  1. IPC Guidance Note 2 on Preparation of Application Documents under S37 of the Planning Act 2008

http://infrastructure.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/IPC-app-docs-guidance-note-2.pdf

The following sections in particular may be of use;

16 The draft Order should also include provisions relating to the following areas:- Provisions giving the developer authority to take actions necessary for the project to be implemented satisfactorily. These might include, for example, authority to compulsorily acquire land, or to stop-up streets or extinguish private rights of way, or to carry out protective works to buildings (s120(3)-(4)); Sch 5 of the Act);

21 It should be noted that if a development consent Order seeks to include the compulsory acquisition of certain special categories of land, such as local authority, statutory undertaker, National Trust or common land, then additional procedures apply. These are either that a provision authorising the compulsory acquisition of such land cannot be included in an Order unless the appropriate certificate of authorisation is issued by the Secretary of State (and so the IPC will need to be provided with the certificate before making its decision); or in some cases once a decision to grant an Order is made, the Order will be subject to special parliamentary procedure before it comes into effect (s127-132). Promoters should obtain any required certificate before submission of the application wherever possible (under s127 and s131) or at least have made some progress towards obtaining any necessary certificate and include information in the Explanatory Memorandum confirming the stage reached in these procedures (for guidance related to procedures for compulsory acquisition, see Planning Act 2008 Guidance related to procedures for compulsory acquisition). The IPC will be able to advise on the process if special category land is to be included in the application.

  1. Guidance Related to Procedures for Compulsory Acquisition

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/guidancecompulsoryacquisit.pdf

I would recommend reading most of this particular document and therefore have not highlighted any particular sections.