Ardent

A national surveying, stakeholder communications and consents management practice has welcomed a range of measures in the Labour manifesto – but has made stark warning on potential changes to the compulsory purchase process.

Ardent, which has offices in London, Birmingham, Warrington, Leeds, Glasgow and Dublin, and employs around 170 staff with expertise in the transport, renewables, utilities and
regeneration sectors has been digesting the manifesto, released in Manchester.

It includes a range of proposals that seek to grow the UK economy through improved infrastructure, a more efficient planning process and investment in renewables. Jon Stott, Group Managing Director of Ardent, said: “There are a lot of positive noises and lots to welcome in the manifesto and Labour has clearly set its sights on economic growth through better infrastructure, better planning and investment in green energy.

“There aren’t many surprises because much of this has been trailed in advance of the manifesto launch but it’s still interesting to see all of it in one place.
“For us, as a business, it’s covering all of the sectors that we have expertise in and our teams will be keen to see more of the detail when it comes to announcements such as the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority. What does it replace? What exactly will its powers be?

“But it is exciting to see strong commitments towards a ten-year infrastructure strategy and zero carbon electrification by 2030 through the GB Energy plan. Whether everything they
want to deliver on green energy can be delivered is difficult to say at this stage. It’s ambitious and based on the fact it will be funded through a windfall tax on oil and gas companies suggests it might not be totally realistic.

“However, we welcome the commitment and the ambition to deliver projects that will have a positive impact – economically, environmentally and socially. 

“Even the delivery of new prisons is going to take fresh thinking with, what sounds like, plans to change the planning process and make them require a DCO and, therefore, take them out of local politics. “Elsewhere, more powers are moving towards combined authorities and it will be vitally important for practices such as ours to be geared towards that. On the one hand, some powers are moving back to the centre and, on the other, they are being devolved to the regions.

“Our one real area of concern around Labour’s plans is the changing of the rules around compulsory purchase and what appears to be an even bigger shift away from compensating landowners at market value for their land. "The logic says that if landowners receive an amount below market value, discounting any future development hope that might already exist, for their land it will make it more affordable to develop for housing or deliver infrastructure. “Removing the right to receive market value for land is unfair and may have the reverse effect. Developers will be more cautious when trying to assemble sites if there is a risk it could be compulsorily acquired from them at a lower price than they paid. Landowners will likely resist compulsory acquisition.

“This compensation approach harks back to a short period post WW2 when landowners were paid at agricultural value for the first wave of new towns. However, this approach was
short lived as many deemed it unfair. This paved the way for the 'market value' approach to be introduced that has been used for the last 50 plus years.

“These changes could lead to more disputes and delays and make what is already quite a stressful process for many to go through potentially more challenging.”