Anyone living north of Birmingham in the path of the new high speed rail link announced today? Took a look at the map and it going to make a hell of an impact here near Ashby de la Zouch Leicestershire. Runs near the M42 Birmingham to Nottingham and it has just made 100's of houses unsaleable round here. Part of the plan is amazingly to tunnel under East Midland Airport's main runway. In fact it just about goes through the back yard of our MP Andrew Bridgen's yard. No wonder he is not happy. https://www.gov.uk/hs2-phase-two-initial-preferred-route-plan-and-profile-maps
Developments like roads, railway lines, airports, power stations and quarries, if we are to have them at all, have to be put somewhere. And wherever they go the owners of the land and residents in the homes do not like it. Compulsory purchase of land for these developments results in payment of compensation, as does injurious affection to nearby land. Unfortunately in the UK compensation is based only on market value, so those affected always oppose every scheme. In some countries (e.g. France) compensation is assessed as market value + 10%. Those affected are always in favour of schemes, since that is the best price they are going to get for their asset, so it is much easier and quicker to get schemes approved and built. What a pity we don't do the same here.
An Irish colleague was telling me that the reason there are some strange twists and turn in the motorways in Ireland was because the construction was diverted across land belonging to the family and friends of those in power so that generous compensation payments could be received.
nah...that would never happen mate..the people in power are there to helps us...wealth always trickles down from the top and these guys always play fair with full transparency.
If they were starting the work tomorrow it would not be such a problem for the home owners round here; they could take their payoff and move but the project isn't getting going for about 5 years and takes about another 10 years to complete. People in or near the path of the track who have their houses for sale now are totally fooked, who will buy their house? This scheme could still not happen as there is still a general election to come. The track cuts through businessses who will not know wether to invest for the future or not. Just amazes me that such a scheme gets published with no prior consultation of the people affected.
If you ever go skiing in Switzerland (French speaking) you'll take the motorway into the Valais. It ploughs right through the middle of a vineyard with stunning views of Lake Geneva. You can only imagine how popular that was when it was mooted and how keen people were to give up their vines and views to a motorway. Fact is, life would be impossible without that motorway. If Haussmann had paid attention to local sympathies, you'd have never had Paris in the magnificence you see today. It's not exactly Ceaucescu's palace, is it?
Well of course it's good news. Unless it's your house they are planning to demolish, in which case you have my every sympathy.
basic idea of hs2 almost makes sense but the detail is somewhat lacking hs2 should form part of an integrated travel package, why then is it not linked via staions at birmingham airport and east midlands airport? putting a station at some disused railway siding in nottingham doesn't quite make sense when a station under the eastmids airport that is centrally located between Derby, notttingham and Leicester and has excellent road conections to A50, M42 and M1 by the time the legal wrangles have been sorted it it will be more like 30-40 years to builds rather than the 20 they are currently talking about but the real qustion that has never been asked, who really wants to get to birmingham / london or whereever 12 minutes quicker anyway, it would make far better sense and cost a lot less money to sort the existing rail network out
I can understand getting out of London faster but why would anyone want to hurry to get to the dump. People move out of cities to get away from this crap and then city dweller trash it trying to get home 10 minutes faster Improving what we have would be a far better use of money.
I live near to HS1, when the train passes and the wind's in the right direction I get 10 seconds of noise. Is it annoying, no, you get used to it. Does it affect my property value, maybe when it was built but not now, the price I paid took that into account and hence will be the same if/when I sell. My lane has 5 houses in it, all are grade 2 listed, mine included. The closest one has HS1 at the end of their garden, so if they're going to build it, it'll take the route they seem best taking everything into account. On the plus side, and it's a big plus for me, I can be in the City in 35 minutes, and Disney in 2 hours
There is the Blight Notice procedure, which enables owners of property blighted by planned schemes to get compensated.
If they offered to pay me 10% more than market value for my house, I would accept like a shot obviously. But it's never going to happen, sadly.
I read that report, which the journalist writing it has muddled up. If your land is compulsorily purchased in UK what you are paid is market value for the property plus disturbance and removal expenses plus costs. The inclusive cost to the promoter of buying land for the scheme works out at about market value plus 10%. What I was talking about is being paid market value plus 10% for the land, plus disturbance, removals and costs.
It's planned to run right through my friend's garden. He bought the house as a "doeruper" and has spent 10 years and a mint on getting it just right. His wife is a keen gardener and it shows. They've worked hard and turned it from a "Dog" into a really beautiful property (home). The initial communications indicate they'll only get compensation for the lost garden. Needless to say, they're gutted. On the bright side, since checking the drawings again, I now see it's going the opposite side of the A42 to my house. So we won't see it and probably won't even hear it :biggrin:
The initial communication would be just about the compulsory purchase of their land, i.e. just the garden land. Once they have obtained professional advice no doubt they will also be making further claims for injurious affection of the land they keep, under the Land Compensation Acts, and other items. The total compensation they get should equate to the value they lose.
