Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Lord Meston Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 15th September 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Lord Meston]

209A: Clause 103, page 142, line 41, at end insert “unless the person displaced can show that he did not deliberately allow the dwelling to fall into disrepair or to remain derelict and that his failure to take steps or action required by the notice or order served was due to that person’s poor health or other infirmity, or was due to his inability to afford the cost of the work required.”
Member's explanatory statement
This amendment seeks to mitigate the potentially harsh and punitive application of the proposed new section 32A of the 1973 Act when a dwelling is compulsorily acquired.

[Lord Meston (CB)]

My Lords, Amendment 209A concerns the scope of exceptions to home loss payments in Clause 103. The compulsory acquisition of property, particularly a dwelling, is a serious step for which clear and proper justification should be required. The person displaced is usually compensated by a statutory home loss payment. In Clause 103, new Section 32A of the 1973 Act stipulates exceptions to the right to such a home loss payment when the property has been allowed to get into disrepair or there have been other failures. Under the Bill, people covered by those exceptions are to be denied any home loss payment. However, in reality, the price the individual receives on compulsory purchase will always already reflect any lack of repair. Deprivation of the home loss payment would therefore be in addition to the reduced price, which reflects a poor state of repair.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Meston, for bringing us this amendment on compulsory purchase compensation rules. The amendment would ensure that home owners still receive home loss payments, even where they have failed to take action required by an improvement notice or order served on them, if that failure is due to the person’s poor health or other infirmity, or their inability to afford the cost of the action. A home loss payment is an additional amount of compensation paid to a person to recognise the inconvenience and disruption caused where a person is displaced from their home as a result of a CPO.

Under the current provisions in the Land Compensation Act 1973, where property owners have failed to comply with an improvement notice, their right to basic and occupier’s loss payments is excluded. There are, however, currently no similar exclusions for home loss payments. This Bill amends the 1973 Act to apply this exclusion to home loss payments also. However, where the exclusion of a home loss payment applies, owners would still be entitled to compensation for the market value of their property, disturbance compensation or other costs of the CPO process, such as legal or other professional costs. The provision introduced by this Bill will lower local authorities’ costs of using their CPO powers to bring sub-standard properties back into use as housing and ensure that the compensation regime is fair.

The amendment would ensure that, where an owner can show that they did not deliberately allow their property—subject to an improvement notice or order—to fall into disrepair or to remain derelict and that it was the result of ill health, other infirmity or a lack of financial resources, they can still make a claim for a home loss payment. We believe that it is for individual local authorities to determine whether it is appropriate to serve an improvement notice or order under the provisions listed in the Land Compensation Act, taking into account the personal circumstances of the property owner. For these reasons, I kindly ask the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.

[Lord Meston (CB)]

My Lords, I am grateful for both the supportive remarks from the Opposition Front Bench and the considered response from the Government. I would like to think about that—in particular, the wider implications of what is being proposed—more closely. On that basis, although I reserve the right to return on Report, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.

Amendment 209A withdrawn.