Submitting a Blight Notice and Express Purchase

Submitting a Blight Notice

You can serve a blight notice on the government if you are:

• an owner-occupier, have a freehold, leasehold of the property or a business lease which has more than 3 years left to run; AND
• you have been occupying the property for at least 6 months or, if the property is empty, you have occupied it for at least 6 of the last 18 months.

If the government accepts the blight notice it will buy the property at the value it would have been on open market if there were no plans for HS2 and you could receive extra compensation.

The government has now taken possession of the land needed for HS2. However blight notices can still be considered under the statutory framework. The Secretary of State has the right to counter blight notices where the property is not required.

Express Purchase

If your property is in safeguarding the government offer an Express Purchase scheme which, if you qualify, relaxes some of the rules that normally apply to statutory blight, making it easier for you to sell your property to the government.

This scheme applies to properties in the surface safeguarding area and Extended Homeowner Protection Zone only.

What happens if your Blight Notice is accepted?

If we accept your Blight Notice, it means that we will agree to buy your property under the compulsory purchase Compensation Code (that is, as if the property were being compulsorily purchased). This means that you would get the unblighted value of your interest in the property (freehold or leasehold), and reasonable removal costs and expenses (a disturbance payment). You may also be entitled to a loss payment.

If your Blight Notice is accepted and relates to a residential property that is still in safeguarding at Handsacre Junction or on the former Phase 2 route of HS2 between Crewe and Manchester, you may be eligible to use our Streamlined Residential Blight Scheme. This scheme is designed to reduce timescales and minimise disruption when compared to the existing Statutory Blight and Express Purchases schemes.

If we believe you may be eligible for the Streamlined Residential Blight Scheme the acceptance letter from the Department for Transport will mention this. Alternatively, you can ask your professional advisor to raise this with us.

Streamlined Residential Blight scheme

The Streamlined Residential Blight scheme is a simplified scheme compared to the standard Statutory Blight or Express Purchase scheme, which reduces the negotiation on property price and fixed disturbance payments to agree a settlement faster in most cases.

The Streamlined Residential Blight Scheme allows you to:

Find the unblighted market value by using two independent Red Book valuations. A third valuation will be needed if the two valuations are more than 10% apart.

Have a fixed disturbance payment of £7,000:

Both the disturbance payment and final valuation figure are non-negotiable. You can change your mind at any time and revert to the standard Statutory or Express Purchase schemes.

For further information about these schemes or to discuss which options might be available to you please contact the HS2 Helpdesk. The HS2 Helpdesk is open all day, every day on 08081 434 434 or email us at [email protected].