ABSTRACT
The right to claim compensation for severance and injurious affection is found in section 7 of the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965, which provides that in addition to the value of the land to be purchased the owner is entitled ‘to the damage, if any, to be sustained ... by reason of the severing of the land purchased from the other land of the owner, or otherwise injuriously affecting that other land by the exercise of the powers’. Severance occurs where the land acquired from the claimant contributes to the value of the retained land, so that when severed from it the retained land loses value. Injurious affection is the depreciation in value of retained land as a result of the compulsory acquisition and the proposed use of all the land acquired by the acquiring authority. Severance can be said to be one cause of injurious affection to the retained land. The rules on the problem of the effect of severance are deficient. They assume that damage due to severance only harms the retained land. It has long been recognised in the United States (Sackman [1972]) and in this country (Sams [1982]) that severance may cause damage to the value of the land taken. The classic test for establishing a claim for compensation for severance or injurious affection is found in Cowper Essex v Acton Local Board [1889] HL. Cowper owned land laid out for a building estate and part was taken for a sewage farm. The remaining part, which was
depreciated in value by the sewage farm, was separated from the part acquired by a railway line. It was decided that a claim could be made, even if the two parts were not contiguous, provided that where a claimant has separate pieces of land, they are so near to each other, and so situated, that possession and control of each gives an enhanced value to all of them. Lord Watson said:
[W]here several pieces of land, owned by the same person, are so near to each other, and so situated that the possession and control of each gives an enhanced value to all of them, they are lands held together within the meaning of the Act: so that if one piece is compulsorily taken, and converted to uses which depreciate the value of the rest, the owner has a right to compensation.
