This article will be of most interest to acquiring authorities promoting CPOs, but also to others who are keen to understand the recent changes to the CPO process and the government’s efforts to streamline the current system. This article doesn't cover the changes to the development consent order regime under the Planning & Infrastructure Act 2025 (which are covered in a separate article).
A number of targeted reforms have recently been made to compulsory purchase procedure under the Levelling‑up and Regeneration Act 2023 (LURA) (the provisions came into force on 2 December 2025), and the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 (PIA), which received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025.
Taken together, the measures introduced by LURA and PIA will serve to modernise and speed-up the CPO process. The key changes and their practical implications are summarised below.
Enabling electronic notifications
Under section 181 of LURA and amended sections 11 and 15 of the Acquisition of Land Act 1981 (ALA), authorities promoting a compulsory purchase order (CPO) must now publish the notice of making and confirmation of a CPO, the made/confirmed CPO itself, and the accompanying maps, electronically online. This requirement applies to all CPOs made on or after 2 December 2025 (with transitional provisions for CPOs where the notice of making of a CPO was published before 2 December 2025).
Complementing section 181 of LURA, s105 of PIA will (when in force as of 18 February 2026) make changes to section 38 of the Land Compensation Act 1961 (LCA 1961), Part 6 of the Land Compensation Act 1973 (LCA 1973), and s6 of ALA, to also enable notices and documents to be served electronically.
It means that documents and notices can be served (i) by e-mail or (ii) by upload to a website where an affected person has agreed in writing to receive such notices/documents by this method.
A notice or other document sent electronically will (unless the contrary is proved), be treated as having been received on the next working day. This important change will make the service of notices much more efficient, and have a far lesser impact on the environment, than the service of paper notices and documents by post or by hand (although these methods will still need to be utilised where agreement to the use of electronic methods isn't given).
Similar provisions enable electronic service of notices/documents on acquiring authorities, confirming authorities, inspectors, local authorities and statutory undertakers.
Additionally, s106 of PIA (which came into force on 19 December 2025) has simplified the information to be included in newspaper notices to be published upon making and confirmation of a CPO, by enabling acquiring authorities to ‘briefly identify the land’ (which will be satisfied by giving its postal address or otherwise).This should make these notices much less cumbersome - a longstanding problem with notices relating to large or linear schemes, which have tended to include detailed descriptions of land on a near plot-by-plot level – meaning that they have been difficult for a lay person to decipher. Under the new regime, acquiring authorities will be required to provide the necessary public information requirements and reduce costs for acquiring authorities.
Clarification of temporary possession powers
Section 112 of PIA (not yet in force) amends section 18 of the Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017 (NPA) to ensure that the temporary possession powers contained therein can operate independently for CPOs authorised under ALA and the New Towns Act 1981, without interfering with how temporary possession of land is obtained under the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project and Transport and Works Act Order regimes, and special/hybrid acts. This provision will come into force at the same time as section 18 of NPA, which is long awaited and still to be confirmed.
While over recent years the lack of temporary possession powers available in connection with a CPO has been partially circumnavigated by legal drafting (by enabling the acquisition of bespoke ‘packages’ of rights limited by their purpose eg for the construction, use and removal of a construction compound to achieve a similar result to temporary possession powers), section 18 of NPA (as amended by s112 of PIA) will facilitate a more efficient, cost-effective and proportionate approach to site entry and compulsory acquisition pursuant to a CPO once this comes into force.
Possible removal of ‘hope value’
Additions to LCA 1961 introduced by LURA in April 2024 allowed certain public bodies to seek a direction from the Secretary of State for the disregard of hope value (ie any uplift in land value that may be due in light of a potential planning permission which would be likely to be granted over the land to be acquired), in connection with a CPO when assessing compensation in connection with affordable housing, health or education schemes. Section 113 of PIA (which is due to come into force on 18 February 2026) extends this power to town, parish, and community councils for CPOs needed to secure land for affordable or social housing schemes.
In order to secure such a direction, acquiring authorities must submit a statement of commitments alongside the relevant CPO which sets out their intentions for the land, and must demonstrate a compelling case in the public interest that justifies disregarding hope value in connection with the CPO. Where a direction is made, compensation available in connection with the CPO will reflect existing use or existing development value, with any speculative development value to be disregarded.
Whilst the disapplication of hope value compensation for schemes offering significant public benefits is generally welcome within the industry, the promotion of such schemes by town, parish and community councils is infrequent at best, and it'll remain to be seen whether this change will fuel an appetite to engage in the CPO promotion process (which, despite recent reforms, remains administratively burdensome, time-consuming and costly) or whether this extension of powers will not prove to be particularly impactful.
Amendments to delegated decision-making in s14A of ALA
Where a CPO attracts no outstanding objections, decision-making can now be delegated to the acquiring authority itself, even in circumstances where the order includes a direction which removes hope value from any compensation due in connection with the CPO (see s113 of PIA, which is due to come into force on 18 February 2026, and makes consequential changes to LCA 1961, LCA 1973 and ALA).
S107 of PIA will also amend s14A of ALA from 18 February 2026, to enable an acquiring authority to confirm its own CPO with modifications, provided that the modification(s) (i) do(es) not affect a person’s interest in land, or (ii) (if it/they do affect a person’s interest in land) the affected person gives their consent to the modification(s) being made.
Conditional confirmation
Section 183 of LURA (which came into force on 2 December 2025) enables confirming authorities to confirm a CPO subject to specific conditions (such as, for example, requirements for project funding to be secured, or completing required environmental assessments) which must be satisfied before compulsory purchase powers can be implemented. This will allow acquiring authorities to initiate the CPO process earlier while key matters such as funding remain to be settled, while retaining the necessary governance and oversight to ensure that a CPO won't be implemented where there are existing impediments to the scheme.
Expedited general vesting declaration process
Section 108 of PIA (which amends section 4 of the Compulsory Purchase (Vesting Declarations) Act 1981 as of 18 February 2026) introduces an expedited procedure for the vesting of land which can be used if the land is either (i) unoccupied, unfit for ordinary use (due to, for example, disrepair, neglect, contamination or poses a health and safety risk) and Schedule A1 (counter-notice requiring purchase of additional land) does not apply; or (ii) no person with an identifiable interest in the land can be found. (We note that there is no ‘or’ or ‘and’ provided for in the legislation in relation to these requirements, which we presume is an oversight.)
Land is not regarded as occupied if (a) it is occupied only by persons who do not have a right to occupy it; (b) because of the presence of chattels on the land if the chattels appear to the acquiring authority to be of no significant value.
Under the expedited procedure, land may vest after a minimum of six weeks from service of the notice of making (as opposed to a minimum period of three months under the usual general vesting declaration (GVD) process).
Section 109 of PIA (which will insert a new section 8B into the Compulsory Purchase (Vesting Declarations) Act 1981- the date of commencement of which is still to be confirmed) also allows the vesting process to be expedited on the basis of agreement between the acquiring authority and landowner. The agreed date for vesting must not be earlier than the day after the final date for filing a challenge to the CPO (six weeks after the notice of confirmation of the CPO is published).
Taken together, these reforms should streamline the GVD process to allow land to vest more swiftly in certain circumstances, thereby accelerating land take and subsequent delivery of schemes where these conditions are met. However, in the event that the land does not meet the requirements for the exercise of expedited vesting powers under section 108 of PIA, and agreement for early vesting cannot be reached with a landowner pursuant to section 109 of PIA, the usual timescales will of course apply. It remains to be seen, therefore, how much this will speed up the delivery of development in practice.
Conclusion: A new chapter for compulsory purchase
The combined effect of the newly in force LURA provisions and the coming into law of PIA is a positive move towards a more streamlined, proportionate, and future-ready approach to compulsory purchase.
Overall, the recently introduced reforms should help to reduce delays in, and the administrative costs of, the CPO process, and ensure that the regime affords genuine support for projects delivering significant public benefit, while continuing to ensure that appropriate procedural safeguards are in place for those affected.
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