Cripps Harries Hall

The compulsory purchase of land and buildings enables infrastructure like major roads and railways to be built, and large regeneration projects to be carried out. The interests of landowners are protected by detailed rules, rights to object, and rights to compensation.

What we do

We have been involved in the CPO process for major projects such as the Docklands Light Railway and the High Speed Rail Link through Kent. We are currently working on CrossRail. These projects have required a thorough knowledge of CPO rules and practice, and of Lands Tribunal procedures as compensation claims are decided there. The hundreds of related land acquisitions have been handled by our property lawyers.

Our clients

Public and statutory authorities who promote major infrastructure. We also act for many developers and other landowners when they are faced with the compulsory acquisition of their land or developers who are working with a local authority to promote a CPO for a regeneration project for example.

Why Cripps Harries Hall?

We have teams of lawyers who have been doing CPO work for years. That experience means not only that we thoroughly understand the process, but that we also work closely with the many experts from other disciplines that a successful CPO team needs, such as valuers, surveyors and barristers. We also understand how the public sector works.

Next steps

For further information please contact Carol Wakeford.

• Successfully securing a decision by the Lands Chamber (Upper Tribunal) in excess of 300 compensation claims that a nominal sum of £50 is the price for a tube of subsoil required to construct rail link tunnels under London. These decisions have now set an important precedent for the cpo world to follow in future major rail link infrastructure projects
• Handling a number of significant overland compensation claims valued at in excess of £1 million. The issues arising included claims for lost development and business profit, the interpretation of voluntary acquisition agreements outside the compulsory purchase code, the legal status of compensatable interests as well as the identity of claimants entitled to compensation
• Taken discreet legal issues as far as the Court of Appeal (Kent County Council v The Secretary of State for Transport) creating new law and reinforcing existing law relating to compulsory purchase. Other reported cases where we have acted for the Secretary of State for Transport are Christos v The Secretary of State for Transport, Prielipp and Kennerley v The Secretary of State for Transport and Toms v The Secretary of State for Transport
• Successfully handling time critical injunctive proceedings to gain entry to buildings close to a rail link construction site in the City of London, to carry out works to strengthen and support the buildings against the impact of the rail link construction works. Access was gained pursuant to statutory powers afforded to major rail projects but which are rarely applied in practice
• Developing innovative solutions and cases management systems with the Land Registry to secure effective registration of very diverse titles for land and interests required for transport projects, and with the Lands Chamber to progress to a resolution large numbers of compensation claims where claimants were either untraceable or reluctant to participate