A NEW consultation on compensation for HS2 has been launched.
It follows on from a high court ruling in March which deemed a previous consultation as ‘so unfair as to be unlawful’.
There is no change from a consultation which took place earlier this year in that home-owners living in the construction zone of 60 metres from the centre-line of HS2 would be eligible for what is effect exactly the same as statutory compensation.
There would then be a rural support zone which offers different schemes for compensation, with a boundary which will differ in different places after considering various factors such as topography.
Beyond this, a long term hardship scheme is proposed, which is similar to the current exceptional hardship scheme, in that people will have to demonstrate hardship.
Stop HS2 campaign manager, Joe Rukin said: “We have little faith in these proposals, as the vast majority of property blight is taking place outside the zones in which homeowners are guaranteed to get compensation.
Thousands of people who will have difficulty in selling their homes will have to apply to rehashed version of a scheme which so far has given nothing to over 80% of applicants.”
“We strongly advise anyone who thinks they could be affected by HS2 to respond to this consultation.”
The consultation runs until Wednesday December 4. For further details, visit www.gov.uk/government/consultations/hs2-property-compensation-consultation-2013