Town and Country Planning Act 1954

52 Recovery of certain sums from acquiring authorities

(1) Where, under Part I of this Act, a payment becomes payable by the Central Land Board in respect of the compulsory acquisition of an interest in land by, or the sale of such an interest to, a public authority possessing compulsory purchase powers (in this section referred to as " the acquiring authority "), the Board shall, subject to the provisions of this section, be entitled to recover the amount of the payment from the acquiring authority.

(2) The preceding subsection shall not apply if—

(a) the acquiring authority is a government department and the interest was acquired in pursuance of a notice to treat served, or a contract made, before the twenty-sixth day of February, nineteen hundred and fifty-four ; or

(b) the interest was acquired, in pursuance of a notice to treat served, or a contract made, before the eighteenth day of November, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, for the purposes of the development or re-development of any area as a whole; or

(c) the interest was acquired, in pursuance of such a notice to treat or contract as is mentioned in the last preceding paragraph, for the purposes of the use of the land as a public open space or as allotments:

Provided that paragraph (b) of this subsection shall not affect the application of the preceding subsection—

(i) if the interest was acquired by a development corporation under the New Towns Act, 1946 ; or

(ii) if it is certified by the Minister that the interest was acquired for the purposes of the development or redevelopment of an area as an industrial estate.

(3) If, before the eighteenth day of November, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, operations were begun in, on, over or under any land in which an interest such as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section subsists, or a use of any such land was instituted, being operations or a use—

(a) in respect of which, whether before or after the commencement of this Act, a development charge has been determined to be payable, or it has been determined that no development charge is payable; or

(b) comprised in a scheme of development exempt from development charge,

the said subsection (1) shall not apply to so much of any payment referred to in that subsection as is attributable to any land in relation to which the determination was made or, as the case may be, which is included in that scheme of development.

(4) If such a payment as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section would have been payable, or the amount of such a payment would have been greater, but for the existence of either or both of the following circumstances, that is to say—

(a) that by virtue of the Second Schedule to this Act a claim holding relating to the whole or part of the land comprised in the acquisition or sale was treated as extinguished, or reduced in value, by reference to a development charge relating to other land;

(b) that by virtue of subsection (2) of section fourteen of this Act a sum was set off against the payment by reference to such a development charge,

the preceding provisions of this section shall apply as if neither of those circumstances had existed and the payment had become payable or (as the case may be) the amount of the payment had been increased accordingly.

(5) Where, under subsection (3) of section fourteen of this Act, a sum was set off against a payment, as being a payment which would have been payable under Part I of this Act if applied for, the preceding provisions of this section shall apply as if that payment had been payable under the said Part I and the set-off had been effected under subsection (2) of the said section fourteen.

(6) Where, in the case of a compulsory acquisition to which Part III of this Act applies, the compensation payable in respect of the acquisition is diminished—

(a) by an amount exceeding twenty pounds owing to the fact that compensation under Part II or V of this Act or compensation to which Part IV of this Act applies has become payable in respect of a planning decision or order made before the service of the notice to treat; or

(b) owing to the fact that by virtue of the Second Schedule to this Act a claim holding relating to the whole or part of the land comprised in the acquisition was treated as extinguished, or reduced in value, by reference to a development charge relating to other land,

the Minister (in a case falling within paragraph (a) of this subsection) or the Central Land Board (in a case falling within paragraph (b) thereof) shall be entitled to recover from the acquiring authority a sum equal to the amount by which the compensation is less than it would have been if the circumstances referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) of this subsection, as the case may be, had not existed.

(7) Where an interest in land is compulsorily acquired by, or sold to, a public authority possessing compulsory purchase powers, in pursuance of a notice to treat served, or a contract made, after the commencement of this Act, or was so acquired or sold in pursuance of a notice to treat served, or a contract made, on or after the sixth day of August, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, and before the commencement of this Act, and a payment exceeding twenty pounds has become payable under section fifty-nine of the principal Act in respect of that interest, or becomes so payable after the commencement of this Act, the Central Land Board shall be entitled to recover the amount of the payment from the acquiring authority:

Provided that—

(a) the provisions of subsections (2) and (3) of this section shall have effect in relation to this subsection as they have effect in relation to subsection (1) of this section;

(b) no amount shall be recoverable by the Central Land Board under this subsection in relation to any land in relation to which an amount has become recoverable by the Minister under section twenty-nine as applied by section fifty-seven of this Act;

(c) if the acquisition or sale does or did not extend to the whole of the land to which the payment related, the amount recoverable under this subsection shall be so much of that payment as is by virtue of subsection (4) of section fifty-seven of this Act to be treated as apportioned to the land in which the interest acquired or sold subsisted.

(8) Regulations made under this section with the consent of the Treasury may provide—

(a) for reducing the amount recoverable from the acquiring authority under subsection (1) of this section, or under the last preceding subsection, in cases where, since the interest was acquired by that authority and before the eighteenth day of November, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, the land in question or part thereof was the subject of a disposition of a description specified by the regulations, not being a disposition in favour of a public authority possessing compulsory purchase powers;

(b) for enabling the acquiring authority to recover a contribution, determined in such manner as may be prescribed by the regulations, from another public authority possessing compulsory purchase powers, in cases where, since the interest was acquired by the acquiring authority and before the commencement of this Act, the land in question or part thereof was the subject of a compulsory acquisition by that other authority, or of any other disposition in favour of that authority of a description so prescribed;

(c) for applying the provisions of subsection (6) of this section, subject to such adaptations and modifications as may be prescribed, to purchases of land by agreement, by public authorities possessing compulsory purcase powers, in pursuance of contracts made after the commencement of this Act, where the purchase price is determined in accordance with the regulations to be diminished as mentioned in that subsection.

(9) Where a sum is recoverable from an authority under this section by reference to an acquisition or purchase of an interest in land, and in respect thereof, or of a subsequent appropriation of the land, a grant became or becomes payable to that or some other authority under any enactment, the power conferred by that enactment to pay the grant shall include, and shall be deemed always to have included, power to pay a grant in respect of that sum as if it had been expenditure incurred by the acquiring authority in connection with the acquisition or purchase.

(10) In this section, references to a scheme of development exempt from development charge are references to a scheme of development such that, if the operations and uses of land comprised in the scheme had all been begun or instituted before the eighteenth day of November, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, all those operations and uses would have been exempt from the provisions of Part VII of the principal Act by virtue of regulations made thereunder; and references to the amount of a payment shall be construed as including any interest payable on the principal amount of the payment.