ASSIGNMENT

Assignment

Assignment

The current law of compulsory purchase of land is difficult to locate, complicated to decipher and elusive to apply. The case for its reform is overwhelming and has been recognised by Government. In July 2000, the Compulsory Purchase Policy Review Advisory Group, which had been established by the DETR, reported that the law was “an unwieldy and lumbering creature”. One of its recommendations was that the Law Commission should be asked to review the law relating to compulsory purchase and to make proposals for its simplification, consolidation and codification. This led to a formal reference by the Lord Chancellor to the Law Commission in July 2001.

Under current law, the powers conferred by a compulsory purchase order are only exercisable for a period of three years from the date the order becomes operative. We recommend clarification of what is required in order to “exercise” powers: that is, service of notice to treat, or execution of a general vesting declaration (according to the implementation procedure chosen.) We also recommend reduction of the period in which powers should be exercised in order to minimise unnecessary delays in land acquisition. It is necessary that compensation claims for compulsory purchase are brought expeditiously to the Lands Tribunal. We recommend standardisation of these limitation provisions as they apply to notices to treat and to vesting declarations such that the claimant should be required to claim compensation within a certain period running from the date when they knew or ought reasonably to have known of the taking of possession of the land or its vesting in the acquiring authority. Under the current Limitation Act (of 1980) this period would be six years: in the event of the Law Commission's recommendations on Limitation of Actions (contained in its Report Law Com No 270) being implemented, it would be three ...