HS2 Government Response Published

The Department for Transport has published its response to the House of Lords Select Committee on the High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill.

The DfT has accepted the Committee’s recommendation on the petition of the Coleshill Estate that land at Brickfield Farm, due to be compulsorily purchased to provide replacement open space, should be omitted from acquisition under Clause 4 of the Bill.

The DfT has also accepted the Committee’s recommendations on the key points raised in the petition of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), namely:

• the omission from the Bill of clause 48(1)-(3) containing the power to make compulsory purchase orders for the regeneration and development of land; and
• the problems arising from the permanent acquisition of land that is required only temporarily and the Secretary of State’s policy applying an amended version of the Crichel Down Rules.

Richard Honey appeared for both the Coleshill Estate and the Country Land and Business Association before the House of Lords Select Committee, instructed in both cases by Ian McCulloch of Bircham Dyson Bell.