Could the Council Compulsorily Purchase My Land, and Would Hope Value Be Paid?

Buying land without the owner's agreement is called compulsory purchase, and the legal document that authorises it is a compulsory purchase order, almost always shortened to CPO. The body that wants the land is called the acquiring authority. It might be a district or county council, Homes England, a development corporation, a highways body, an NHS trust or a utility company. Each one acts under its own Act of Parliament, which sets out what it may acquire land for. That Act is called the enabling power.

For a council, the power most often used in connection with new homes is section 226 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which lets a council acquire land in its area for planning purposes. The council must think the purchase will facilitate the carrying out of development, re-development or improvement, and that the scheme is likely to improve the economic, social or environmental well-being of its area. It also needs authorisation from the Secretary of State.

The government's guidance sets the bar higher than the bare wording of the Act. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's Guidance on the compulsory purchase process, updated in June 2026, tells authorities to use these powers only where there is a compelling case in the public interest (paragraph 2.1). It also expects them to try to buy all the land and rights they need by agreement (paragraph 2.2), and to show the evidence of those negotiations when they submit the order (paragraph 17.8). An authority may run the formal process alongside the talks rather than waiting for them to fail (paragraph 2.8).

• There must be a scheme. A CPO is made to deliver a defined project, such as a road, a regeneration area or a new town, not to acquire land in general.
• The case must be compelling. Owners can challenge whether it is, at an inquiry and, on the legal points, in the High Court.

1. Negotiation and preparation. The authority identifies the land it needs, finds out who has an interest in it, and opens talks to buy by agreement.
2. The order is made and notices are served. Owners, tenants and occupiers are served with notice, the order is advertised, and objections can be made within the period stated, which must be at least 21 days (paragraph 25.1).
3. The order goes to the confirming authority. That is the minister with power to authorise the purchase (paragraph 28.1). Where nobody objects, that minister can instead give the acquiring authority notice that it may confirm the order itself (paragraphs 61.1 and 61.2).
4. Objections are heard. If objections from owners, tenants or occupiers remain, there is a public local inquiry, or written representations if every remaining objector and the authority agree (paragraph 32.1). The guidance says an inquiry is typically held around six months after the order is submitted (paragraph 41.1).
5. The decision. The order is confirmed, confirmed with changes, or rejected. Where a minister decides after an inquiry, the published timetable aims for 80% of decisions within 20 weeks of the inquiry closing and the rest within 24 weeks (paragraph 70.2).
6. The window for a legal challenge. A person aggrieved can apply to the High Court under section 23 of the Acquisition of Land Act 1981, within six weeks of the date that section fixes (paragraphs 72.1 and 72.3).
7. The land is taken. The authority uses a notice to treat and notice of entry, or a general vesting declaration, which passes ownership to it on a set date.
8. Compensation is claimed and settled. The owner submits a claim, can ask for an advance payment, and either agrees the figure or refers it to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber).

Can I Object to a Compulsory Purchase Order?

Yes. An owner, lessee, tenant or occupier of the land has a formal right to object, and if the objection is not withdrawn they have a right to be heard by an inspector.

The guidance calls an objection from an owner, lessee, tenant, occupier, or anyone due a notice to treat a relevant objection (paragraph 33.1). Remaining objectors, those whose relevant objections have not been withdrawn, have a right to be heard at an inquiry (paragraph 35.1). Neighbours and other third parties have no such right, although the inspector may allow them to speak (paragraph 25.2).

An objection can go to points such as these:

• whether there is a compelling case in the public interest for taking this particular land;
• whether the scheme is likely to go ahead, with the funding and permissions it needs;
• whether all of the land is needed, or a smaller area would do;
• whether the authority made reasonable attempts to buy by agreement;
• where a hope value direction is included, whether the public interest justifies leaving hope value out of the compensation.

An objection is not a way to argue about the amount of compensation. The inquiry decides whether the land should be taken. How much is paid for it is settled separately, by agreement or by the Upper Tribunal, under the compensation rules in the next sections.

The starting point is section 5 of the Land Compensation Act 1961. Rule 1 says that no allowance shall be made on account of the acquisition being compulsory, so there is no extra payment simply because the owner did not choose to sell. Rule 2 sets the value of land at the amount it might be expected to realise if sold in the open market by a willing seller. Rule 6 keeps disturbance, and any other loss not based directly on the value of the land, as a separate claim.

Compensation usually has several parts, which together are called the heads of claim. The Valuation Office Agency's Land Compensation Manual, its technical guide for valuers, sets out who can claim.

Severance matters a great deal on farms. Section 7 of the 1965 Act requires the authority to have regard not only to the value of the land it buys but also to the damage the owner suffers through that land being severed from the owner's other land. A road taken across the middle of a holding can leave two awkward parcels and a longer route to the far field.

Interest is paid on compensation from the date of entry, or from the date the land vests where the authority uses a general vesting declaration. The Valuation Office Agency's manual gives the rate as simple interest at 0.5% below the median base rate quoted by the seven largest banks, read on the quarter day (31 March, 30 June, 30 September or 31 December) just before entry (paragraphs 1.19 to 1.21). That is why the date the authority takes the land matters as much as the date the figure is agreed.

Hope value is the slice of a field's worth that comes from the chance that it may one day be allowed to be built on. How it figures in an ordinary sale is covered in our guide to how the price for your land is worked out. In compulsory purchase, two rules decide how much of it can count.

The No-Scheme Principle

Rule 2A in section 5 of the 1961 Act sends the valuer to section 6A, the no-scheme principle. The valuer sets aside whatever the authority's own project, or the prospect of it, has done to the value of the land, in either direction. Section 14(5) then tells the valuer to assume that the project was cancelled on its launch date, that the authority has done nothing for it, and that no other public project to meet the same need is coming. So if a council buys a field for a housing scheme, the field is not valued as if the council's own scheme gave it planning permission. Equally, the owner is not paid less because the threat of the scheme has put buyers off.

The Planning Assumptions

Section 14 sets out what planning permission may be taken into account. A permission already in force on the valuation date counts, whether outline or full. The prospect of a permission being granted after that date can also count, judged on the circumstances known to the market at the valuation date and on the cancelled-scheme assumptions above. The 1961 Act calls the scheme the land is bought for the underlying scheme, and where its extent is disputed, the Upper Tribunal decides.

Certificates of Appropriate Alternative Development

Section 17 of the 1961 Act provides for a certificate of appropriate alternative development, often shortened to CAAD, which certifies development that would have been appropriate on the land if there were no scheme. Under section 14(2A), development certified in this way is taken as certain to have been permitted on the valuation date, which can carry much more weight in the valuation than a prospect alone.

Our guide to selling now or waiting introduces the direction briefly; the detail follows.

Which Schemes Can Carry a Direction

The government's factsheet on the power to remove hope value lists three kinds of purpose: development, regeneration, housing or new town schemes that include public sector led affordable or social housing, which may sit within a mixed tenure scheme; acquisitions by NHS bodies; and acquisitions for educational purposes. The bodies that can seek a direction include councils and local housing authorities, Homes England, the Greater London Authority, mayoral, urban and new town development corporations, NHS trusts and foundation trusts, and councils acquiring for education.

What the Authority Has to Show

• Compelling reasons. The factsheet says the authority must set out compelling reasons why including the direction is justified in the public interest.
• Evidence of the benefit. It should show the public benefits expected from not paying hope value, the public needs they will meet, the effect on the owners affected, and how a fair balance between public and private interests is struck.
• A statement of commitments. This is submitted with any order containing a direction, describing the public benefits that paying compensation without hope value will deliver.

What the Owner Is Still Paid

A confirmed direction changes the planning assumption: the valuer must take it that the council would refuse any application to build on the land. Any planning permission already in force still counts, so land that already has permission keeps that value in the calculation. A certificate of appropriate alternative development, and the prospect of a future permission, are both left out.

If the Scheme Is Never Delivered

The factsheet describes a safeguard. A former owner can apply to the Secretary of State for additional compensation if the authority has not done what it said it would with the land, and either ten years have passed since the order became operative or there is no realistic prospect of doing it within that time, and the direction would not have been confirmed on the strength of what the authority has actually done. The additional sum is the difference between what would have been paid without the direction and what was paid, where the first is greater.

A basic loss payment is made to someone with a qualifying interest in the land taken, such as the freehold or a lease. An occupier's loss payment is made to someone who occupies the land, such as the farmer working it, whether owner or tenant. An owner who also occupies and farms the land can qualify for both, subject to the conditions in the Land Compensation Act 1973. Section 110 of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, in force from 18 February 2026, swapped the main percentages and caps for England, and the Valuation Office Agency's manual explains that the new figures apply to orders whose making was publicised on or after 18 February 2026.

There are exceptions. The Valuation Office Agency's manual lists cases where no basic or occupier's loss payment is made, such as to an owner who has failed to comply with certain statutory notices about the condition of the land (paragraph 13.37). Where a farmer could claim both an occupier's loss payment on agricultural land and a payment under section 12(1) of the Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1968, only the larger of the two is paid (paragraph 13.23). Where an order carries a section 14A direction, section 113 of the 2025 Act makes the loss payments follow the value assessed under that section, so hope value is left out of those payments as well.

• Loss payments rebalanced. Section 110 swapped the two payments in England, as shown in the table above.
• Parish and community councils brought in. Section 113 adds compulsory acquisitions made on behalf of parish or community councils, under section 125 of the Local Government Act 1972, to the list of orders that can carry a section 14A direction.
• Confirmation without a minister, where there are no objections. Section 113 also removes subsection (2A) of section 14A of the Acquisition of Land Act 1981, added in 2023, which had stopped an acquiring authority confirming its own order where a direction was included. Under section 14A, the confirming authority can let the acquiring authority confirm its own order where there are no outstanding objections and the notices were properly served (paragraphs 61.1 and 61.2 of the guidance).

Most of section 113 came into force on 18 February 2026, with some parts in force for limited purposes from 19 December 2025. The practical effect for an owner is that an unopposed order containing a direction can now be confirmed without going to a minister. That makes the right to object, and the reasons for objecting, more important where a direction is proposed, because while an objection stands, the confirming authority must decide the order itself.

The New Towns Taskforce advised the government on where new towns should go. On 23 March 2026 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published the new towns draft programme for consultation, which ran until 19 May 2026. The proposed locations were:

• Tempsford, in Bedfordshire;
• Crews Hill and Chase Park, in Enfield;
• Leeds South Bank;
• Manchester Victoria North;
• Thamesmead, in Greenwich;
• Brabazon and the West Innovation Arc, in South Gloucestershire;
• Milton Keynes.

The draft programme said the government intended to publish final proposals and confirm the locations later in summer 2026, once its environmental assessments were complete. When we checked the consultation page on 15 October 2026, it was marked closed, said the government was analysing the feedback, and had no outcome published. The taskforce called for strong delivery vehicles such as development corporations, and the draft programme offers support to set up the right vehicle for each place, including development corporations where appropriate. It says delivery bodies will work with landowners to acquire land through voluntary negotiation, with compulsory purchase powers considered if that fails.

Land value capture is the idea that some of the rise in land value created by a public decision, such as a new town or a Green Belt release, should be used for public benefit rather than kept entirely by the landowner. The draft programme describes Crews Hill and Chase Park as having high potential for land value capture through green belt release, with up to 21,000 homes in outer London. For new towns in general, it says uplift in land value from planning decisions and infrastructure can be reinvested in affordable housing, community facilities and other public services.

This is where new towns and hope value meet. New town development corporations are among the bodies that can seek a section 14A direction, and new town schemes with public sector led affordable or social housing are among the purposes that qualify. Whether any direction is sought for any particular site is a matter for the body concerned, and for the confirming authority to test. For land outside the proposed locations, none of this applies.

The Valuation Office Agency's Land Compensation Manual states that the holder of an option to purchase the land acquired may be entitled to claim compensation, citing the case of Oppenheimer v Minister of Transport (paragraph 1.10). The same manual sets out the other interests that can claim, including leaseholders, tenants, mortgagees and the holders of easements and covenants.

How the compensation is divided between an owner and an option holder depends on the terms of their agreement and on the valuation of each interest, and in a real case it is worked out by the solicitors and valuers acting for each side. The position under any other kind of arrangement, such as a promotion agreement, depends on what that arrangement creates.

With us, the arrangement is straightforward to identify. We agree a price with you at the start, written as a figure and set above what the land is worth today in its current use. Our solicitors register the option on your title, so it sits on the public register alongside your ownership. We pay for and run all the planning work, at our own cost and risk, and you keep owning and using the land until completion. If permission is not secured, you keep your land and owe nothing.

• Is your land, or land next to it, named in a published scheme, such as a road project, a regeneration area or a new town programme?
• Has a public body written asking about your interest in the land, or asked to survey it?
• Does your council's local plan propose development on or around your land, and does it name a public body to deliver it?
• Is anyone else, such as a tenant, a mortgage lender or an option holder, recorded as having an interest in your land?

The government's guidance tells acquiring authorities that they can agree to reimburse the reasonable costs of negotiation incurred by owners and occupiers (paragraph 17.7), and that they should consider funding professional fees for surveys or reports (paragraph 19.1). A model compensation claim form is published with the guidance, so owners and authorities work from the same headings.

Surveyors who belong to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors follow its professional standard on compulsory purchase, which took effect on 23 December 2024. It says fees are generally recoverable by the claimant as an additional part of the compensation if they were reasonably and properly incurred (paragraph 9.3). It also notes that an authority has no legal duty to repay fees until a duty to pay compensation arises (paragraph 9.5), and requires the surveyor to agree the fee basis with the client in writing (paragraph 9.7).

• Advance payments. Section 52 of the Land Compensation Act 1973 lets the person entitled to compensation ask in writing for an advance, once the purchase has been authorised. It is 90 per cent of the agreed compensation, or of the authority's estimate where the amount is not yet agreed, and the Act sets a deadline for payment linked to when the authority takes possession.
• Alternative dispute resolution. The guidance urges authorities to offer it, using a suitably qualified independent third party, and names mediation and early neutral evaluation as examples (paragraphs 18.1 and 18.2).
• The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber). Where compensation cannot be agreed, it can be referred to this specialist tribunal. The 1961 Act gives it the decisions on questions such as the extent of the underlying scheme and whether land with no general market for its use can be valued on the cost of reinstating that use elsewhere.

Land outside any published scheme is not exposed to it in the way headlines sometimes suggest. Where an order is possible, the scheme behind it is published long before any order, in a local plan, a regeneration strategy or a government programme. The existence of compulsory purchase is not, on its own, a reason to rush any decision about your land, and it is not a reason to delay one either.

For an owner whose land has ordinary development potential, the question is the same as it would be without any CPO: whether the land has a realistic case for planning, and how best to bring it forward. Our guide to whether your land is in the local plan explains how to check the council's documents for your land, and our option agreement guide explains how a fixed price agreed at the start works while the planning is pursued.

If you would like to know where your own land stands, a free desktop review looks at its planning position, its constraints and the council's plans, and gives you a straight answer about its prospects.