Clause 53
Crossrail Bill
4:15 pm
Stephen Hammond (Shadow Minister, Transport; Wimbledon, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 65, in clause 53, page 32, line 27, leave out ‘nominated undertaker’ and insert ‘Secretary of State’.
The clause is probably the shortest in the Bill, but it is significant. I return to the issue of compensation, which we have discussed more than once in Committee. The clause provides that section 10(1) of the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965 will apply in respect of land used for or in connection with the construction of Crossrail. That section deals with those claiming
“compensation in respect of any land, or any interest in land, which has been taken for or injuriously affected by the execution of the works, and for which the acquiring authority have not made satisfaction”.
There is, however, a small but significant alteration to the wording of the 1965 Act—the substitution of “nominated undertaker” for “the acquiring authority”. If we do not do that, the Bill will effectively muddy what is already the grey area of the respective duties and responsibilities of the Secretary of State and the nominated undertaker.
The Committee might recall that when we dealt with clause 6 on compulsory purchase, I tabled an amendment that would have given the nominated undertaker, as opposed to the Secretary of State, the powers to purchase compulsorily. The Minister said that he was tempted by my amendment, but not quite enough, and it was therefore withdrawn. It is clear in the clause that the Secretary of State alone is responsible for the compulsory purchase of land. However, on the question of compensation, it appears that, although the Secretary of State will have compulsorily purchased the land and will be the acquiring authority, the responsibility for compensation now passes to the nominated undertaker.
To make the clause work, therefore, we need to insert the words “Secretary of State” rather than “nominated undertaker”, as outlined in the amendment. Otherwise, we will have an odd perversity, which is that the Secretary of State will have compulsorily acquired the land, yet the nominated undertaker—who may or may not be the Secretary of State, as we discovered previously—will pay out the compensation. That is very strange.
If a landowner’s land were seized or compulsorily purchased by one person, it would seem strange if he had to seek compensation from another. If, as is the case in clause 6, we make the Secretary of State the person who compulsorily acquires the land, it seems perfectly consistent that that Secretary of State must also take on the duties and responsibilities associated with the purchase. Therefore, my amendment would make the clause consistent with other clauses by taking out the words “nominated undertaker” and replacing them with “Secretary of State”.