New clause 20 - Power to require information
Planning and Compulsory Purchase (Re-committed) Bill
10:00 am
Mr Keith Hill (Minister of State (Housing and Planning), Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Streatham, Labour)
We now come to the matter raised by the hon. Member for Cotswold: how information about interest should be acquired. An authority seeking to acquire land needs to know the names and addresses of those occupying and having an interest in that land in order to be able to enter into negotiations to purchase by agreement. It is also necessary to have that information if the authority seeks to acquire the land compulsorily, because it is required to serve notice of the making of the compulsory purchase order on such persons. Correctly ascertaining those interests in the land at an early stage must be fairer for the persons affected. The authority can inform them of its intentions and try to negotiate a purchase by agreement. It saves time if the authority can have confidence in the information that it has gathered, and helps to ensure that the compulsory purchase order is prepared correctly, including serving the appropriate notices on all the right people.
Some acquiring authorities already have powers to require such information. Such powers usually do not extend to requiring information about all interests in land. In view of the extended categories of persons to be served with notice of the making of the CPO under new clause 18, which we have already discussed and included in the Bill, such powers may be inadequate. Other acquiring authorities, including the regional development agencies, the urban regeneration agency—English Partnerships—and urban development corporations, have no such power. Despite the fact that much of the land that they may need to assemble will be on brownfield sites, where ownership and occupation details are likely to be complex, there is no obvious reason for that inconsistency, which can impede the compulsory purchase process.
For completeness, I ought to add that for land in unknown ownership all is not lost. There is a statutory procedure for the service of notices at the making of a CPO under section 6(4) of the Acquisition of Land Act 1981, referred to by the hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Sir Sydney Chapman). However, before resorting to that procedure, the acquiring authority must first be satisfied that reasonable inquiry has been made and that it is not practicable to ascertain the name and address of an owner, lessee or occupier. Without a statutory power to requisition for information, such an inquiry can cause considerable delay. The amendment therefore introduces a new section into the 1981 Act to enable all acquiring authorities to require information for the purposes of acquiring land or new rights over land in cases where the provisions of that Act apply. That does not mean that land necessarily has to be compulsorily acquired or even acquired by agreement. However, the power to obtain the names and addresses may be exercised only for the purpose of enabling the authority to acquire the land in question.
The acquiring authorities' notice has to be in writing and must set a deadline for a response, which must also be in writing. The range of people on whom such a notice can be served is limited to the occupiers of that land, any freeholders, mortgagees or lessees, the recipient of rent for the land and anyone who manages the land under an agreement with someone else who has an interest in it. The notice requires details to be provided of anyone whom the recipient believes to be an owner, lessee or occupier of the land, or to have another interest in it. Failure to comply with such a notice without reasonable excuse is to be an offence. It will also be an offence for a person responding to the notice served on him to give information that is false in a material particular that he either knows is false or ought reasonably to know is false.
If either offence is committed by a body corporate with the consent or connivance of certain officers, or is attributable to any neglect on the part of officers of the body corporate, that officer will also be guilty of the offence. Such an officer may be a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer. Both offences are to be summary, with a level 5 fine on the standard scale: currently a maximum of £5,000.