Schedule 2
Housing and Regeneration Bill
10:30 am
Robert Syms (Poole, Conservative)
I would like to make a general point. The subject of compulsory purchase is a complex one, but we live in a country of owner-occupiers who tend to relate everything that happens in their area to the price of their house. We are sometimes parsimonious in compensating people affected by development, and we would meet less opposition to worthy schemes if we were a little more generous at the beginning in compensating people whose properties are subject to a compulsory purchase order. That could unlock certain projects and speed up their development. I am not an expert on the subject of compulsory purchase, but will the agency be constrained in what it can offer when it purchases a site? That probably relates more to another measure—the Planning Bill—that is being considered in Committee today. Is there a formula for such purchases? Is it fixed or can it made more generous to speed up a housing development and obtain the benefits?