Compensation for land compulsorily acquired – Depreciation to be ascertained under section 9 of Land Compensation Act 1961 – Whether Lands Tribunal erring in assessment of compensation
By a compulsory purchase order confirmed on November 14 1983, Kingston upon Thames Royal London Borough Council (the council), acquired a sliver of land, the blue land, comprising 245.6 sq m on the south side of Clarence Street, immediately to the east of Kingston Bridge . The land was acquired for highway purposes. Entry on to the blue land was made by the council on April 7 1990, the valuation date. In assessing the compensation payable, the Lands Tribunal found that at the time of the implementation of planning permission for Bishop’s House, a proposed mixed development of retail, office and other uses, an indication had been given by the council that the land was likely to be acquired. In consequence, buildings had been set back at ground level so as not to stand on any of the land likely to be acquired, although at upper-floor levels the building was constructed so as to overhang part of that land. The tribunal also found that but for that indication of compulsory acquisition, planning permission would have been granted for a more valuable development comprising more retail floorspace extending on to most of the land at ground- and upper-floor levels. The compensation paid to the plaintiff, English Property Corporation (the claimant), was assessed by the tribunal on June 6 1996 at £171,400. Both the claimant and the council were dissatisfied with the decision and appealed by way of case stated to the Court of Appeal. The council claimed that the figure should have been £85,700. The claimant claimed, inter alia, that the tribunal assessment failed properly to assess the compensation payable for the severance of the blue land from the rest of the site. By a further decision on October 11 1996, the tribunal awarded to the claimant part only of their costs of the reference, notwithstanding that the compensation awarded by their decision exceeded the amount previously offered by the council. The claimant contended that it should have been awarded all its costs without deduction.
Held The appeal was allowed and the figure of £85,700 substituted.
1. The depreciation to be ascertained as required by section 9 of the Land Compensation Act 1961 was that sustained by the land acquired separate and distinct from the site as a whole and the land retained. The tribunal compared the development, which in their view would have taken place but for the indication of a likely acquisition for a relief road, which they ascertained to be an extra 90 sq m of retail space with a total value of £171,400. That was the value of the blue land as a part of the site as a whole. Having ascertained the value of the blue land before severance from the site as a whole, the tribunal then had to ascertain its value as a separate site. The tribunal had been entitled to find as they did that the value of the blue land was £85,700, but were not, having made that finding, entitled to attribute to the blue land the other £85,700 described by the tribunal as severance.
2. There was nothing in the instant case to displace the normal rule that the land retained, like the land acquired, was to be valued as at the date of entry in its actual physical condition as at the date of the notice to treat. The tribunal had not therefore erred in the assessment of compensation payable under section 7 of the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965.
Robin Purchas QC and Timothy Comyn (instructed by the solicitor to Kingston upon Thames Royal London Borough Council) appeared for the acquiring authority; Matthew Horton QC (instructed by Simmons & Simmons) appeared for the claimant.