Appropriating land and overriding rights

Section 203 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 (HPA 2016) confers powers to override easements and other rights benefitting the adjoining land in connection with development. See Practice Note: Section 203 powers—interference with rights for development purposes.

Section 203 came into effect on 13 July 2016 and extended and replaced powers set out in section 237 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990), by introducing that the power will apply where the local authority could acquire the land compulsorily for the purposes of development.

HPA 2016, s 203 (and its predecessor, TCPA 1990, s 237) has been relied on in high-profile developments to overcome rights of light and other easements or restrictive covenants threatening to prevent projects from progressing. In practice, where a particular development programme is at risk due to the inability to agree the release of certain rights, developers have requested that the local authority intervenes by using its powers to appropriate or acquire the development site to then trigger the power in HPA 2016, s 203. Once the site has

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