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We have called for modernising legislation enabling the compulsory purchase of common land, while retaining the existing, vital, safeguard of Parliamentary scrutiny in exceptional cases.
Okehampton bypass, driven though open space at Okehampton Park on Dartmoor in Devon, only after special parliamentary procedure and a confirming Act. Photo: Open Spaces Society
Responding to the Law Commission’s consultation on compulsory purchase[1], the society endorses the protection for common land and open space subject to a compulsory purchase order. Existing legislation, in the Acquisition of Land Act 1981, requires Ministers expressly to certify an order, usually requiring other land to become common land, or open space, in exchange. If no certificate is given, the order is subject to the little-used ‘special parliamentary procedure’, requiring confirmation by Parliament[2].
Says our case officer Hugh Craddock: ‘The Law Commission asked whether the existing provisions “cause any problems in practice”. We have told the Commission that, far from being “an unnecessary complication”, these protections are essential to insulate commons and open spaces from being the cheapest option for development, and to ensure that developers and decision-makers give particular consideration to the impact of a development on such land.’
Hugh continues: ‘We have said that the existing protections should not only be retained, but strengthened, so as to improve the notice given of orders; better to define what common land means; to ensure that public access and management measures straightforwardly apply to land given in substitution; and to require that the effect of an order is reflected in amendments made to the commons registers held by local authorities.’
Hugh concludes: ‘If the Commission adopts our proposed measures in relation to the protection of commons and open space, it will significantly strengthen the existing legislation and ensure that it functions in a way which is better understood by developers, local authorities, and the public.’
[1]Consultation Paper 267, published 20 December 2024, closing date 31 March 2025: lawcom.gov.uk/project/compulsory-purchase/ . The society’s response is here.
[2]In Wales, an order is subject to special senedd procedure. The consultation, and the society’s response, applies to the law in England and Wales.