[2025] UKUT 00007 (LC)

The preliminary issue agreed by the parties is in these terms:

The issue is to be determined by reference to the respective valuation dates for the four sites. Numbering the sites from west to east, the dates on which the interests of the four owners were acquired for HS2 (which are the valuation dates) were as follows:

Although the valuation dates straddle two academic years during which different numbers of students were enrolled and some small differences existed in the amount of accommodation already available or in the development pipeline, the experts agree that circumstances did not change between March and September 2018 to any material extent so the same answer can be given to the preliminary issue for each site.

The experts also reached agreement on the second limb of the preliminary issue concerning distances and travel times between the four sites and eight of the main university centres in the city. That information is recorded in the experts’ joint statement to which reference can be made at the later stages of the proceedings.