High Court challenge to a Compulsory Purchase Order (Saravanamuthu v Secretary of State for Communities, Housing and Local Government)
Planning analysis: The claimant challenged the validity of the London Borough of Newham (James Riley Point) Compulsory Purchase Order 2023, inter alia, on the basis of the rationality and lawfulness of the inspector’s approach to assessing the financial viability of the scheme. When an acquiring authority seeks to use powers under section 226 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990) for a compulsory purchase order, government guidance is that the decision-maker will need to consider ’the potential financial viability of the scheme’. The case explores how that element of the guidance applies to authority-led schemes, in particular, where the scheme is regarded by the council as a ’loss leader’ (essentially to encourage wider regeneration in the locality), as here. Written by Mark Westmoreland Smith, King’s Counsel at Francis Taylor Building.