Compulsory purchase and compensation

In July, 2002, the Law Commission published a consultative report on compulsory purchase compensation. This is the first of two papers which review the existing law of compulsory purchase, and suggest the outline of a new compulsory purchase code. The paper suggests new legislation which would consolidate and reform the existing law of compulsory purchase. As this paper could bell herald a most important change in the compensation system since the 1960 Land Compensation Act, This paper is a summary of the proposals which are set out in the consultative report. Two recent Lands Tribunal decisions are also considered which illustrate the problems which the reforms are intended to address.