East Suffolk Council
New Compulsory Purchase Order (CPOs) principles adopted
East Suffolk Council has approved a policy which aims to clarify the process of bringing unused or difficult to acquire land into use – which should make it easier to see regeneration and more affordable homes built across the district.
At its Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 2 September, the Council adopted the East Suffolk Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) Protocol, which sets out the steps the Council will take to acquire property or land within the district without agreement.
Compulsory purchase is a formalised process that enables public bodies like councils to acquire ownership of land or property when it is clearly in the public interest to do so. This, for example, could be used to assist the local authority in purchasing private land or property when the identity of the landowner is unknown, untraceable or when an agreement cannot be reached between parties.
Councillor David Beavan, East Suffolk’s cabinet member for Housing, said: “I’m pleased to see the Council adopting these principles which aim to make the process of compulsorily acquiring land or property by the Council more efficient and transparent.
“The Protocol will play a vital role in unlocking unused or hard-to-acquire land, such as vacant brownfield sites and derelict building, allowing the Council to accelerate the delivery of much-needed affordable housing and lead on transformative regeneration across East Suffolk.
“We hope the principles will ultimately help the Council to make quicker decisions on CPOs, reduce the associated administrative costs and ensure a fair process for all parties, but most importantly, to benefit the taxpayer. Now that the Protocol is in place, the Council is looking to identify difficult sites across the district, with the aim of prioritising one or two to act as case studies which could be progressed through compulsory purchase. The Council will no longer tolerate site or building owners that clearly have no intention to be developed, causing a blight in our district.”
Adoption of the CPO Protocol provides up-to-date guidance to internal and external parties as to how and when the Council will consider, and then (if necessary) undertake, a compulsory purchase process.
The CPO Protocol has been developed in line with the Government’s ongoing reforms to the CPO process, which has the aims of making it more efficient and with a fairer balance struck in sharing the ‘uplift’ value of land with planning permission between landowners and public bodies. The Protocol will be kept under review as further national CPO reforms are made.