The government is planning to set up a service to relocate businesses displaced by Crossrail, the high-speed rail link across the capital.
Briefing papers given to MPs during Crossrail Committee meetings say that the agency will advise occupiers on suitable and available property.
It adds: “Close contacts will be established with property agents, landowners, developers and local authorities to ensure that reliable and effective information is provided.”
It is not yet clear how many businesses will be affected by the bill, although it could be far more than originally thought.
Last week, the government granted itself extra powers to acquire land.
It warned landlords that it would not allow them to interfere with the “shared underlying objective of getting the Crossrail system open sooner rather than later.”
The committee tasked with fine-tuning the bill hosted the first of over 50 meetings this week, with British Land and the Corporation of London protesting that the scheme had not taken account of new office schemes planned for Bishopsgate.
However, the issue of how Europe’s biggest civil engineering project will be funded has been referred to Sir Michael Lyons as part of his review of Local Government.
Rob Wilson, Conservative MP for Reading East, said: “We are left with the suspicion that the referral to Lyons is nothing more than putting the project out into the long grass.”
References: EGi News 24/01/06
