Financial help for property owners affected by HS2 extended route to Crewe

Published: 26 May 2016
By Chris Haycock

• property compensation and assistance package now available for owner-occupiers along the HS2 Phase 2a route between the West Midlands and Crewe
• improvements also made to proposed schemes covering Phase One and Phase 2a, aimed to help people with health and mobility issues and those who have previously struggled to sell their property

Changes also mean eligible owner-occupiers can nominate local surveyors to value their property.

Compensation and assistance measures for eligible people living near the HS2 route between Fradley and Crewe have been confirmed by the Department for Transport today (26 May 2016).

The package of schemes on offer for HS2 Phase 2a are based on those announced for the HS2 Phase One route between London and the West Midlands.

The schemes go well beyond legal requirements and offer an effective means of helping those along the line of route.

Minister of State for Transport Robert Goodwill said:

Simon Kirby Chief Executive of High Speed Two Ltd said:

From today, owner-occupiers of homes and small businesses within the rural support zone, generally between 60 metres and up to 120 metres from the centre line of the railway where not in deep tunnel in rural areas, can submit an application to HS2 Ltd to receive a payment of 10% of the full, un-blighted value of their property under the cash offer scheme. This is the value of the property as if there were no plans for HS2. The minimum cash offer payment will be £30,000 regardless of the value of the property and capped at £100,000. This will support people who want to remain in their community.

As an alternative to the cash offer scheme, these eligible property owners will also have the option to have their property purchased at the full unblighted value.

Those beyond the rural support zone and within 300 metres of the centreline of the railway will, following Royal Assent of the HS2 Phase 2a Hybrid bill, be able to apply for a homeowner payment ranging from £7,500 to £22,500.

Eligible owner-occupiers living in urban and rural areas at any distance from the line of route can now apply to the need-to-sell (NTS) scheme, which also pays the un-blighted value to people with a compelling reason to sell their property, but who would been unable to do so – other than at a substantially reduced price – due to HS2.

The HS2 Phase 2a route between the West Midlands and Crewe was confirmed in November 2015, when it was announced that HS2 would reach Crewe in 2027, 6 years earlier than originally planned.

The government has made a number of changes to the schemes proposed in the consultation. These include adding guidance to the need-to-sell scheme to help make sure wider consideration is given to people’s health and mobility and the suitability of their current property when assessing applications.

The changes also mean that property owners will be able to use any RICS registered local surveyor when obtaining valuations for the need to sell and the rural support zone. This will give property owners the opportunity to appoint a valuer who has experience of the local market. This change will also apply to the exceptional hardship scheme operating for the remainder of Phase Two until route announcement later this year.

These changes will allow the schemes to provide the assistance the Government has long committed to for those along the route of HS2. These changes will therefore also be applied to the scheme now operating for Phase One.