Under a wartime agreement in 1941 the UK government agreed to lease to the US Government land in Trinidad on which the US could establish a naval base. To do this the Crown acquired the Pointe Gourde land for its limestone quarry which would be used to provide materials to construct the air base. It used compulsory powers to do so. Compensation was to be assessed. The landowner said that the limestone was now more valuable because of the need for it for the air base.
Held: The Board set out the basis for valuation of land purchased compulsorily at common law. The 1919 Act, following the Scott Committee limited compensation payable for the ‘special suitability or adaptability’ of the land with a Rule for assessing compensation; that it should not for any purpose be be taken into account if that purpose is a purpose to which it could be applied only in pursuance of statutory powers, or for which there is no market apart from the special needs of a particular purchaser or the requirements of any Government Department or any local or public authority.
The Act modified ‘the effect of certain decisions of the Courts relating to the quantum of compensation in cases of compulsory purchase’.
The rule did not apply to the facts of this case. The word ‘purpose’ here meant ‘a purpose to which the land can be applied. It therefore connotes ‘a use, actual or potential, of the land itself, and cannot be regarded as meaning a purpose which is only concerned with the use of the products of the land elsewhere’.
The award of andpound;15,000 ‘for special adaptability’ was disallowed because it could only relate to the additional value which was given to the quarry land by the scheme for which the land was acquired, the establishment by the United States of a naval base in Trinidad. In general, any increase or decrease in value due solely to the scheme under which the land is acquired is to be discounted.
Lord MacDermott said: ‘It is well settled that compensation for the compulsory acquisition of land cannot include an increase in value which is entirely due to the scheme underlying the acquisition.’
Lord MacDermott, Lord Oaksey, Lord Morton
[1947] AC 565, (1947) 63 TLR 486, [1947] UKPC 71
Bailii
Acquisition of Land (Assessment of Compensation) Act 1919
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – South Eastern Railway Co v London County Council 1915
Compulsory purchase – compensation assessment – ‘Increase in value consequent on the execution of the undertaking for or in connection with which the purchase is made must be disregarded.’ . .
Cited – Fraser v City of Fraserville PC 1917
One ground on which the arbitrators’ valuation award on a compulsory purchase, was set aside was that, in valuing the falls of a river and adjacent land acquired for electricity generation purposes, the arbitrators had taken into account the . .
Cited by:
Cited – Waters and others v Welsh Development Agency CA 28-Jun-2002
The claimant’s land was subject to a compulsory purchase order to make land available for a scheme to make possible a much larger and more valuable scheme. He asserted that the compensation should be calculated in accordance with the value of the . .
Cited – C F and M G Roberts v South Gloucestershire District Council LT 31-Dec-1994
LT COMPENSATION – Compulsory purchase of land for the construction of a road – value – assumed planning permission – value of minerals – planning permission for a commercial minerals operation not granted or to . .
Cited – Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council v Tudor Properties Ltd and Others CA 19-Apr-2000
The court had to consider the compensation to be awarded on the compulsory purchase of land.
Held: The appeal failed. The tribunal had not erred in ascertaining the extent of the underlying scheme. In deciding that, they were entitled to have . .
Explained – Wilson v Liverpool Corporation CA 1971
The claimants owned 74 acres of an area of 391 acres in Liverpool which the Corporation wanted to acquire for residential development. The authority acquired the land by agreement and made a compulsory purchase order in respect of the remainder.
Cited – Waters and others v Welsh Development Agency HL 29-Apr-2004
Land was to be compulsorily purchased. A large development required the land to be used to create a nature reserve. The question was how and if at all the value of the overall scheme should be considered when assessing the compensation for this . .
Applied – Rugby Joint Water Board v Shaw-Fox HL 1973
The water board obtained a compulsory purchase order to buy agricultural land adjoining a reservoir. The land was subject to protected tenancies under the 1948 Act.
Held: (Majority) Because the land subject to notices to treat was required for . .
Cited – Davy v Leeds Corporation HL 1965
The Corporation declared an area in which the appellants owned some slum houses to be a slum clearance area and made a compulsory purchase order. Compensation was to be assessed under the 1919 Act and the 1959 Act. The appellants were entitled to . .
Cited – Camrose v Basingstoke Corporation CA 1966
Basingstoke was to be expanded to receive overspill population from London and the corporation contracted to purchase about 550 acres from a landowner on terms that the price would be assessed as though the land had been compulsorily acquired under . .
Applied – Myers v Milton Keynes Development Corporation CA 1974
Land was to be acquired for the development of a new town. The court faced the issue, in the context of a valuation for compulsory purchase, of whether the required disregard of any increase in value attributable to the ‘scheme’ meant that the . .
Developed – Bird and Bird v Wakefield Metropolitan Borough Council 1976
The underlying scheme to be disregarded when calculating compensation on a compulsory purchase need not, as a matter of law, be confined to the area of land compulsorily acquired or to the specific purposes of the CPO. The acquisition may be only a . .
Cited – Batchelor v Kent County Council CA 1989
The Council had compulsorily acquired land for highway improvement. It was within an area scheduled for residential development. Outline permission for development of neighbouring land had been granted but the development could not proceed until the . .
Cited – J A Pye (Oxford) Limited v Kingswood Borough Council CA 6-Apr-1998
The purchase of land which was to form the last part of a development was to be valued without taking account of the enhanced value which would be attributed to the much larger scheme of development. To ascertain what is to be ignored by the valuer . .
Cited – Batchelor v Kent County Council LT 1-Mar-1987
The tribunal was asked to determine compensation to be paid on the acquisition of two plots of land. The land-owner claimed andpound;9,000,000 and the council offered andpound;5,490. The land-owner claimed the value as ransom as necessary access to . .
Cited – Newell and others v Secretary of State for the Environment and Another; Fletcher Estates (Harlescott) Ltd v Secretary of State for the Environment and Another HL 17-Feb-2000
Where a certificate of appropriate development was issued for land to be acquired compulsorily, the land was to be valued at the date of the proposal to acquire it compulsorily allowing a discount for any damage to the value incurred by the long . .
Cited – Transport for London (London Underground Ltd) v Spirerose Ltd HL 30-Jul-2009
Compulsory Purchase Compensation – Land As it Is
The House considered the basis of calculation of compensation on the compulsory purchase of land without planning permission, but where permission would probably be granted. The appellant challenged the decision which had treated the probability as . .
Cited – Graham v The Council of The City of Newcastle Upon Tyne UTLC 20-Jan-2010
UTLC COMPENSATION – compulsory purchase – open storage land acquired as part of Morrisons foodstore – whether Case 2 of First Schedule to Land Compensation Act 1961 applies where other land not developed in . .
Applied – Star Energy Weald Basin Ltd and Another v Bocardo Sa SC 28-Jul-2010
The defendant had obtained a licence to extract oil from its land. In order to do so it had to drill out and deep under the Bocardo’s land. No damage at all was caused to B’s land at or near the surface. B claimed in trespass for damages. It now . .
Cited – Roberts and Another v South Gloucestershire Council CA 7-Nov-2002
The landowner appealed against the compensation awarded for the compulsory acquisition of his land for use as a road. The owners had been compensated only for its agricultural value, but said that it should have allowed for its value for minerals . .
Cited – Homes and Communities Agency v JS Bloor (Wilmslow) Ltd SC 22-Feb-2017
Challenge to the sums awarded on compulsory acquisition of grazing land, but which land had a substantial hope value for residential development.
Held: The tribunal’s application of these difficult provisions to the complex facts of this case . .
Cited – Waters and others v Welsh Development Agency LT 3-Nov-2000
LT COMPENSATION – Compulsory purchase of land for purpose of nature reserve to compensate for loss of SSSI caused by Cardiff Bay Barrage – preliminary issues – Land Compensation Act 1961 s 5 rule (3) – Pointe . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Commonwealth, Damages, Land
Leading Case
Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.182824