[2025] UKUT 00138 (LC)

The legal basis of the claimant’s entitlement to compensation is not in dispute. It is well established that compensation for compulsory purchase should reflect not just the market value of the land taken but also the value of the land to the owner; an owner is therefore entitled to compensation for being disturbed from the enjoyment of the land. That entitlement is reflected in what is known as “rule 6”, in section 5 of the Land Compensation Act 1961, although it is set out there rather obliquely. But at any rate it is not in dispute.

As we explained above, we have to compare the claimant’s financial position in the real world, to date and in the future, with the position it would have been in in the “no scheme world”, as it is often called – a shorthand for the world where the scheme was cancelled. In both worlds we have to look into the future, real and imagined, and we have to decide how far to look; there will come a time in both worlds after which we cannot now predict the claimant’s financial position, because other factors, known and unknown, will have a more pronounced effect upon the claimant’s financial position than does the presence or absence of the scheme.