Response: Compulsory Purchase

We welcome the proposals in the consultation to make compulsory purchase order (CPO) processes clearer, fairer, and faster. The government is absolutely right to modernise CPO, a process which we know can often be frustrating and unsatisfactory for all parties involved. We want to see reform go even further, so that CPO can incentivise better development, with more homes being built in the right places.

We argue that there are a range of options for further reform to give greater power to local leaders to get development going in the right places, without major top-down reform of the planning system. This could involve devolving stronger CPO powers to England's growing cities to enable efficient land assembly, which could then enable the delivery of high quality new communities at pace and scale.