Town and Country Planning Act 1954

33 Protection for purchaser of interest subsequently acquired compulsorily

(1) It shall be the duty of the council of a county borough or county district, on application made to them in writing by any person with respect to particular land in the borough or district, to serve on the applicant, within a period of twenty-eight days from the date of the receipt of the application, a notice stating whether or not the council propose to acquire within the next five years (whether compulsorily or otherwise) any interest in that land or in any part thereof, or have been notified by any public authority possessing compulsory purchase powers of a proposal of that authority so to acquire any such interest, specifying in the notice—

(a) any such public authority by whom the council have been so notified ; and

(b) any part of that land to which any such proposal of the council or other authority does not extend.

(2) If—

(a) the council of a county borough or county district have, in accordance with the preceding subsection, given notice to a person that the council do not propose, and have not been notified of any proposal of another authority, to acquire within the next five years any interest in any land specified in the notice (in this subsection referred to as " the specified land "), being the whole or part of the land to which the application related; and

(b) the person to whom the notice was given has within three months of the service of the notice completed, or entered into a bona fide contract for, the purchase of an interest in the specified land or any part thereof and given notice of the completion or, as the case may be, of the making of the contract to the said council; and

(c) that interest, or that interest in so far as it subsists in any part of that land, is subsequently acquired compulsorily, and the first notice required to be published or served in connection with that acquisition, either by an Act or by any Standing Order of either House of Parliament relating to petitions for private bills, is published or served in accordance with that Act or Order before the end of the period of five years beginning with the date of service of the notice referred to in paragraph (a) of this subsection,

then, for the purpose of assessing the compensation payable in respect of the acquisition of that interest, subsection (4) of section fifty-one of the principal Act shall not apply to any planning permission in force at the date of service of the notice referred to in paragraph (a) of this subsection:

Provided that—

(i) if at the date of the publication or service of the first notice in connection with the acquisition such as is referred to in paragraph (c) of this subsection, the purchase mentioned in paragraph (b) thereof has not been completed, this subsection shall not have effect unless the contract mentioned in the said paragraph (b) remains in force at that date;

(ii) this subsection shall not have effect in relation to a purchase by a company from an associated company within the meaning of section forty-seven of this Act.

(3) If, in the case of an application under subsection (1) of this section, at the expiration of the period mentioned in that subsection the council have not served the notice required thereby, then, for the purposes of subsection (2) of this section, the council shall be deemed to have duly served on the applicant at the expiration of the said period such a notice as is mentioned in paragraph (a) of the said subsection (2) with respect to the whole of the land to which the application related.

(4) Without prejudice to the duty imposed by subsection (1) of this section on a council to whom an application under that subsection has been made, the council may require the applicant to pay to them a fee of five shillings.

(5) Section thirty-one of this Act shall not apply for the purpose of assessing any compensation to the assessment of which subsection (2) of this section applies:

Provided that if the compensation payable in respect of the acquisition of the relevant interest would, apart from this proviso, be less than it would have been if this section had not been enacted, the said subsection (2) shall not apply in the case of that acquisition.