ABSTRACT
If Area A is to be designated as the site of a new town (or the extension of a new town) and the main purpose of the new town (or extension to a new town) is housing or other facilities for any public development, the Secretary of State may make a direction under section 51 of the Land Compensation Act 1973 before making his new town order. The effect of such a direction is to provide that any increase or diminution in value due to the housing or other facilities for public development shall be disregarded whether or not the public development is in the designated area (Area A). This provision can therefore widen the effect of Case 3 above. Rank Leisure v Castle Vale Housing Action Trust [2001] concerned Case 4B. The claimants were the last remaining tenants in a shopping centre owned by a housing trust; they were awarded existing use value only as any development value was unlikely in the absence of a designation and ownership by the trust within the meaning of Case 4B. It is the task of the valuers to determine the value of the subject land in the ‘no-scheme’ world. They must imagine what would have happened, and what development might have been permitted, had the scheme of acquisition not taken place:
Myers v Milton Keynes Development Corpn [1974] CA For the details, see above. Lord Denning MR said:
In assessing the value, it is important to consider what would have happened if there had been no scheme … The valuer must cast aside his knowledge of what has in fact happened … due to the scheme. He must ignore the developments which will in all probability take place in the future … owing to the scheme. Instead, he must let his imagination take flight to the clouds. He must conjure up a land of make-believe, where there has not been, nor will be, a brave new town, but where there is to be supposed the old order of things continuing …
The idea is simple to state, but there are great practical difficulties in determining the value a particular property might have had had there been no scheme. However, see Colneway Ltd v Environment Agency [2004] where the interrelation between an assumed planning permission and section 6 was considered.
