How to be an outstanding Acquiring Authority?

Acquiring Authorities would no doubt love to receive an OFSTED outstanding accreditation in their handling of a compulsory purchase. Now they know how to!! Thanks to the recent Public Inquiry confirmation of the decision in London Borough of Southwark (Elephant and Castle Town Centre) Compulsory Purchase Order (No.2) 2023 the pathway to achieve such an accolade is much clearer.

The Order land itself totalled 59 plots covering about 1.03 hectares of land of which about 0.70 hectares relate to rights.

The CPO was promoted to allow the mixed use redevelopment of Elephant & Castle town centre. The scheme includes almost 1,000 new homes, an upgraded tube station, a new campus for UAL’s London College of Communication, restaurants, shops, workspace, leisure and cultural facilities and much new public realm and landscaping.

In confirming the Order, the Inspector addressed whether the Acquiring Authority had demonstrated that they have taken all reasonable steps to acquire land and rights included in the Order by agreement.

The Acquiring Authority evidenced that they had undertaken extensive land assembly without the need for use of compulsory purchase powers. Considerable steps have been taken to seek to acquire the land and rights by agreement. In particular, there has been extensive engagement with those impacted regarding relocation, mitigation and accommodation works. According to the Inspector there had been a “fair and transparent approach to engagement and negotiation” to those affected by the CPO. She described the approach to mitigation of impacts on those affected as “flexible and innovative”.

The Inspector noted that everything has been done to minimise the impact on business including re-accommodating them within the scheme on a more secure basis than they currently enjoyed.

Overall, the Inspector concluded that, due to the mitigation and accommodation proposed as part of the scheme, the overall effect on occupiers would be positive, so that there was “no overall adverse impact on human rights”.

Perhaps the most fulsome praise came at the end of the written determination where she concluded that:
“the steps taken by the Acquiring Authority in preparing and submitting this Order were exemplary”. The exemplary or outstanding performance was built on early engagement with affected parties, early acquisition and innovative approaches to relocation and mitigation.

The pathway to OFSTED outstanding has never been clearer for Acquiring Authorities!