Landlink (Stoke Mandeville) Ltd v The Secretary of State for Transport

Facts

The claimant, Landlink (Stoke Mandeville) Ltd, owned 27 acres of undeveloped land south of Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire. Part of it was allocated under Policy H6b of the Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan, adopted in September 2021, for around 100 units of class C2 accommodation for older people, and the claimant had promoted an integrated retirement community there. As part of the HS2 project the Secretary of State for Transport required land for a new Stoke Mandeville bypass diverting Risborough Road. Temporary possession of just over 5 acres was taken on 21 October 2019, and on 18 May 2022 a general vesting declaration made under the High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Act 2017 permanently vested 2.7 acres in the Secretary of State, bisecting the development land and leaving a one-acre Severed Triangle and 4.3 acres of Southern Retained Land with no reserved right of access over the retained Land Strip. The claimant referred its compensation claim to the Upper Tribunal, valuing it at just under £12.8m against the respondent's figure of a little over £6m, and appealed under section 18 of the Land Compensation Act 1961 against a negative certificate of appropriate alternative development.