Labour is planning to reform how land is valued under Compulsory Purchase Order and plans to give local officials more power to buy cheap land and develop on it.
In government, Labour says that it would seek to overturn the 1981 Land Compensation Act, which prevents councils from buying plots for development at their agricultural value.
The FT says that “at present, local authorities acquiring sites through CPOs must factor the hope value into the purchase price”.
“In recent decades, the gap between the value of agricultural land and fields with permission has widened dramatically. Land worth £22,520 per hectare as agricultural land can on average be worth £6.2m per hectare with permission — 275 times more — according to the Centre for Progressive Policy think-tank.”
A Labour spokesperson tells the FT:
“We want local areas to capture and benefit from a lot more of the uplift than they currently do when development occurs. We want to tilt the balance of power. It feels like the scales are tilted towards . . . landowners, we want to re-tilt it towards the communities that want to see more houses built.”
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson states:
“We want councils to be able to unlock more land for affordable housing, which is why we are reforming compensation for compulsory purchase orders.
The current rules can significantly increase costs for councils and our reforms will ensure the taxpayer gets best value for money, by removing ‘hope value’ where justified and in the public interest.
It will ultimately be for the Secretary of State to decide whether a compulsory purchase order can be approved and if the removal of hope value is appropriate.”
