Compulsory purchase orders take years
- England’s compulsory purchase system still runs on a multi-stage legal process, with objections, inquiries and ministerial sign-off stretching land assembly for housing schemes. - The Ministry of Housing updated CPO guidance on January 31, 2025, but the process still requires attempts to buy by agreement first. - Ministers are still trying to speed it up with new reforms tied to housing targets and new towns. (gov.uk)
In England, a compulsory purchase order is not a quick land grab. It is a legal process that can run through negotiation, objections, an inquiry and a ministerial decision before land changes hands. (gov.uk 1) (gov.uk 2) The acquiring authority must first show a “compelling case in the public interest” and prove it took reasonable steps to buy the land by agreement. The current Ministry of Housing guidance for England was updated on January 31, 2025. (gov.uk) If owners or occupiers object and those objections remain unresolved, the order can go to written representations, a hearing or a public local inquiry. The inquiry route is governed by the Compulsory Purchase (Inquiries Procedure) Rules 2007. (legislation.gov.uk) (gov.uk) That is why developers and local authorities talk about years, not weeks. A housing scheme can have planning momentum but still lack secure control of every parcel needed to build roads, utilities or homes. (gov.uk) (questions-statements.parliament.uk) The government is trying to compress that timetable because it has tied large-site delivery to its target of building 1.5 million homes in this Parliament. A February 13, 2025 ministerial statement said large-scale housing sites are integral to growth and housing supply. (questions-statements.parliament.uk) Reforms are already underway. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 introduced conditional confirmation, digitisation, changes to inquiry rights and wider powers to remove “hope value” from compensation in some cases. (gov.uk) (anthonycollins.com) Ministers proposed another round of changes in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill factsheet published in 2025. Those proposals include delegating more decisions where there are no objections and allowing earlier possession in some cases. (gov.uk) The state is also widening the use case for compulsory purchase beyond classic regeneration disputes. The January 2025 guidance added material on buying land to meet biodiversity net gain requirements, a newer planning obligation for development sites. (gov.uk) (montagu-evans.co.uk) Officially, ministers now publish a register of CPO decisions in England, updated most recently on February 3, 2026. The existence of a central register makes the backlog and cadence more visible, but it does not remove the legal steps that make CPOs slow. (gov.uk) So the core complaint from property professionals is rooted in the structure of the system itself. Even after the latest reforms, compulsory purchase remains a last-resort power with enough procedural stages to keep major housing projects waiting. (gov.uk)
