Simon Ricketts’ article Station to Station (17 March) gave a useful insight into the challenges facing HS2.
Some of the heat could be taken out of schemes such as these by the government and project sponsors proposing a fairer regime for compensating those facing hardship, irrespective of the use of the property or its rateable value. To do this requires a degree of political courage and, dare I say, humility, on the part of the coalition government.
The eligibility criteria for the government’s exceptional hardship compensation scheme for HS2 and similar schemes are archaic, arbitrary and unfair.
Why, for instance, should two owner-occupiers of business premises next door to each other with only £100 difference in rateable value between them around the threshold for blight be treated entirely differently – one being eligible for compensation and the other not?
Why should any business unable to let, assign or sell its premises because of the threat of compulsory purchase and/or disturbance be required to pay empty property rates?
I would suggest to the government that it would be fairer to those genuinely disadvantaged in whatever way through no fault of their own to review the eligibility criteria for dealing with blight and empty property rates.
Henry Clarke, director, Rail Estate
