UK government compensation scheme for rail-blighted houses draws flak
21 Aug 2010
Critics of a UK government scheme that aims to compensate residents along the planned route of a London-Birmingham high-speed rail line have warned that the government could end up with spiraling bills under the proposed scheme. The fund for compensation claims opened for applications yesterday.
According to opponents, the compensation bill for houses blighted by the scheme would exceed much beyond the £50 million estimate.
The proposed route passes through Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, including picture-postcard villages of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Under the Exceptional Hardship Scheme for the railway line – known as High Speed Two (HS2), the government would buy the houses of people living along the likely route who need to sell urgently but who fear they will not get the market rate due to concerns over the effects of the development on local communities.
The route through the rolling Chiltern Hills has been under particular opposition from residents, conservation groups and nature lovers. According to homeowners and estate agents house sales are already getting affected from the scheme.
According to analysts, the government would likely be deluged with applications. They say people are already losing financially with plenty of examples of house sales not going through and estate agents advising people that it was going to be harder to sell properties.
Homeowners and businesses can apply with the government to buy the properties at the full market rates if they prove an urgent need to move and have had the properties up for sale for at least three months and have received no offer above 85 per cent of their market value.
The scheme would be open only to people living 'on or in the vicinity' of the 'preferred route' for the rail line, even though two other potential routes have been identified. Also homes that would be tunnelled under would not qualify for the scheme unless they are near tunnel entrances.
Meanwhile, the scheme's limitations have led to accusations that the government was trying to minimise pay-outs.
The government has received consultation applications from more than 4,500 people on the compensation scheme, with around 29 local groups opposing the rail line.
Meanwhile there are reports of widespread confusion over the scheme's conditions and people fear that official estimates of market value would be too low, especially in sought-after areas.
A lot of people have not been able to put their homes on the market and those who thought their home would be part of the pension when they downsized would never probably be able to realise the value they had.
According to an HS2 spokeswoman no decision on any route would be taken until after the completion of public consultation, which is expected to start early next year.
