The Planning and Infrastructure Bill published on 11 March 2025 has immediately led to headlines such as “Plans to make it easier for Councils to seize land for housing”.

The press is saying that the Government plans to make it easier for Councils to use compulsory purchase powers to purchase land without paying for “Hope Value”. Hope Value can be generally defined as the extra value of land in anticipation of a more valuable use.

Whilst the press says this is another blow to the rural community, we feel it’s important to look past the hype to understand what the new Bill actually means. There are a number of principles why the Bill will not result in Councils seizing huge areas of land at little cost for development. Primarily, the removal of Hope Value only applies to specific situations where Councils are seeking to facilitate particular schemes through use of compulsory purchase powers. These schemes must be for: regeneration or new towns with a provision of significant affordable social housing, acquisitions for the purposes of the NHS, or acquisitions for educational institutions. 

This does not mean that the likes of large-scale developers will simply be able to use compulsory purchase powers to acquire large tracts of agricultural land for the purpose of building housing, nor would they be able to secure such land by only paying agricultural prices. Compulsory purchase legislation has been around for decades. One of the principles of compulsory purchase legislation is valuing in a “no scheme world” principle i.e. value is calculated assuming that the purpose for which it has been compulsory acquired for is not going to take place. 

Still, there are several ways in which landowners can protect their position, such as seeking an Appropriate Alternative Development Certificate (CAAD) for land which has been acquired. The key to protecting landowners’ interest is to seek early advice on ways in which their position can be protected. 

Stepping back and taking an overall view, although the Bill does provide the removal of Hope Value in certain situations, it is unlikely these will apply to large tracts of agricultural land. They are more likely to be urban regeneration projects, or on land where planning permission simply would never be allowed. Therefore, another way of looking at the situation is that there would be very little Hope Value to factor into the valuation equation in the first place.

The other feature of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which seems to be largely ignored at the moment, is the powers and direction given to Natural England to establish Environmental Delivery Plans. This appears to be an attempt to remove single issue objections against development schemes and enabling an objective framework to provide for mitigation, rather than a scheme being prevented from going forward.

To talk to our team of Compulsory Purchase experts please call us on 0333 920 2220.

 -Andrew Entwistle, Partner