Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the provisions for excluding hope value from compulsory purchase compensation to acquisitions undertaken for the regeneration of town centres and high streets.

Public sector authorities compulsorily purchasing land under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 for schemes regenerating town centres and/or high streets which include provision of affordable housing can already seek directions to remove hope value from compensation. Hope value may be removed from compensation in these circumstances providing there is a compelling case for a compulsory purchase order (CPO) and the direction for the non-payment of hope value is justified in the public interest.

The categories of land for which directions may be sought are those the government considers the most likely to justify the direction. The government does not currently consider it has sufficient evidence that other categories of land are as likely to justify the making of a CPO with a direction removing hope value.