Inner House case concerning a compulsory purchase order (CPO) made in relation to property on Argyle Street/Robertson Street in Glasgow. The owners of the properties which were subject to the CPO raised an appeal in which they sought to quash the decision of the Scottish Ministers to confirm the CPO. The CPO had been issued as part of a back-to-back scheme between the Council and a developer for the conversion of the property into, amongst other things, a hotel and apartment complex.
However, the scheme had fallen through when the developer became insolvent and the Irish Government’s National Asset Management Agency failed to re-instate a guarantee by Anglo Irish Bank.
Although all of the parties were then agreed that the CPO should not take effect, there were two practical difficulties:
- there is no statutory procedure by which the Ministers can rescind a decision made by them to confirm a CPO; and
- there is no statutory procedure by which an acquiring authority can withdraw a confirmed CPO.
This meant that the CPO would remain valid until it expired by the passage of time (on 7 September 2013) adversely affecting the interest of property owners (and that of their heritable creditors) in the property.
The Council therefore granted an undertaking which extended to successors in title confirming that it would take no further steps to acquire the land subject to the CPO. The court took the view that, in this case, that was the best means by which the Council could give effect to its intention not to implement the CPO. After considering the authorities and noting that it is possible for a local authority to abandon its rights under a CPO by its conduct, the court found that, all the more so, it was possible for it to abandon its rights by express words.
The full judgement is available from Scottish Courts here.
All of our property and conveyancing case summaries are contained in the LKS Property and Conveyancing Casebook here.
