Making a Compulsory Purchase Order
If ever an area of law were mis-named, this is it. The compulsion in Compulsory Purchase Law is all on the vendor; it really should be called "Compulsory Sale Law". But
the name has stuck and the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965, the Acquisition of Land Act 1981 and the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 all use the long-accepted phrase.
I have been making Compulsory Purchase Orders for local authorities since 1973. Most of those CPO's were for highway schemes.
I have also made several CPO's for housing and have advised local authority and RDA clients on various CPO's for a sewerage pumping station, for economic development and two for town-centre shopping development projects, where the Councils or the RDA were working in partnership with local land-owner developers.
Another client is a parish council trying to persuade their Principal Council to make a CPO for them, to extend the parish burial ground.
The trick with making a CPO, I might say, is to get the CPO right in the first place! If you want a CPO made, you can do worse than to read ODPM Circular 06/2004; it contains a wealth of detail from the very people (albeit now called CLG) who have the power to destroy or confirm Compulsory Purchase Orders. Then you need an eye for detail in Getting the Order Right - and about twelve to twenty-four months' leeway to make the Order and get it confirmed. Once you have confirmation, use of a General Vesting Declaration is the easiest way forward, especially if onward re-sales or sub-sales are needed. The compensation can be left as a separate issue which need not delay the project works.