What are the repercussions of receiving a Schedule 16 Notice for temporary use of land?
There is rarely a week when HS2, the new high speed rail route being built linking London, the East Midlands, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, isn’t in the news.
For anyone not familiar with the project, it can be hard to comprehend the sheer scale of what’s being undertaken. It’s the biggest infrastructure project ever undertaken in Europe, with the first phase of the route due to open in 2026.
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When a large infrastructure scheme is proposed, such as a major road, rail or an airport, there are significant implications for anyone owning land or property near the route. Knowing that a major road or railway is passing their doorstep or farm gates; it is likely to have a huge impact on their homes, businesses and livelihoods.
The Compensation team at Knight Frank represents clients who own land and property along a route. Our role is to help families, businesses and organisations to ensure they get the very best out of what can be a difficult and traumatic situation.
At the moment, we are spending a lot of our time visiting clients along Phase 1 of the route, between London and Birmingham, who are now receiving through their letterboxes Schedule 16 Notices from HS2 Ltd. These Notices are being utilised by HS2 for “temporary” possession and works.
Temporary works, however, can mean tree planting or environmental mitigation work, for example re-housing protected species such as great crested newts.
This use of Schedule 16 Notices for temporary use of land is a new practice in compulsory purchase schemes and we are finding that sometimes clients can be given very short notice and often no indication is made on how long HS2 Ltd will require the use of the land for; it could be a few months or years and at the end, they may end up with trees and land of a different nature to that which they had before.
In this situation we work closely with our clients and liaise on their behalf with HS2 Ltd to ensure that they are adequately compensated for any use, loss, disruption or inconvenience caused by the scheme.
If you have concerns about any major road, rail or airport scheme that might directly affect your home, property of business, please get in touch with our Compensation scheme team.