Compulsory purchase

Reviewing outdated compulsory purchase laws to support a simpler and more modern land acquisition process. The consultation for this project took place in 2025 and the Law Commission is using the consultation responses to inform its final report and a draft Bill.

Problem (Back to top)

Compulsory purchase is a legal mechanism that enables certain bodies to acquire land without the consent of the owner. It can only be carried out with statutory authority and with payment of compensation to the owner.

The ability to buy land using compulsory powers is essential for large-scale projects that enhance local and national infrastructure. The number and scale of such projects is likely to intensify in coming decades, particularly in light of the UK’s net zero climate targets. Compulsory purchase powers are also required for much-needed regeneration of towns and cities and to provide new homes.

At the same time, use of compulsory purchase powers can cause considerable detriment to those individuals and businesses affected and should only be used as a last resort, when it is in the public interest.

It has been widely acknowledged for over two decades that the law of compulsory purchase in England and Wales is fragmented, hard to access and in need of modernisation. In the early 2000s, this led to a three-year project by the Law Commission, Towards a Compulsory Purchase Code, which resulted in the publication of two reports dealing with compensation and procedure respectively.

The recommendations of these reports were favourably received but not fully implemented. Since then, incremental changes to the law have been made but calls for a comprehensive modern code have continued.

Project (Back to top)

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (formerly the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) asked the Law Commission to review the current law on compulsory purchase and compensation.

The Law Commission is reviewing:

the procedures governing the acquisition of land through compulsory purchase orders (CPOs); and
the system for assessing the compensation awarded to parties in relation to such acquisitions.

The aim is to make recommendations to the Government for reform of these areas, and to produce a draft Bill creating a modern, consolidated compensation code.

The consultation

We published a consultation paper in December 2024 setting out initial views on the legal framework governing compulsory purchase and compensation. The paper was split into three parts: procedure, compensation and supplementary matters.

In the consultation paper, we asked questions designed to find out more about how the compulsory purchase system works in practice, as well as inviting views on our provisional proposals. The consultation period closed in March 2025.

Developing our recommendations and next steps

We have analysed the consultation responses and they are informing our work to develop recommendations for reform of the law. Our recommendations on compulsory purchase procedure and compensation will be set out in a final report, which is due to be delivered to the Government and published in early 2027. The final report will be accompanied by a draft Bill. The Bill will deal with compensation only and will set out our vision for a consolidated and reformed compensation code.