The National Association of Estate Agents has come out in favour of the government's proposed compensation scheme for owner occupiers along the proposed route for the first phase of the rail service.
It's only fair that home owners in peripheral areas of the proposed HS2 route are compensated appropriately and these new measures mean that there are now a number of options available to them, including the opportunity to sell their property to government and then rent it back says NAEA managing director Mark Hayward.
The options come after consultation with some estate agents as well as HS2 Ltd (the delivery body for the high speed rail service) and local authorities.
Details of the five main packages are:
Express purchase: for those people living closest to the line, in what is known as the surface safeguarded' area. Under this scheme owner-occupiers may be able to sell their home to the government, if they wish to do so at its full unblighted market value, plus 10 per cent (up to £49,000) and reasonable moving expenses, including stamp duty.
Voluntary purchase: for people in rural areas outside the safeguarding area and up to 120 metres away from the line. Owner-occupiers in this area will be able to sell their home to the government for its full unblighted value at any time up until one year after Phase One first opens for public use.
Cash offer: this gives rural owner-occupiers within the rural support zone the opportunity to sell their property to the government for its full unblighted market value under the voluntary purchase arrangements described above or remaining in their home and receiving 10 per cent of that value. This payment is a minimum of £30,000, capped at £100,000 and available until one year after Phase One first opens for public use.
Need To Sell scheme: this does not have a boundary and is available to owner-occupiers who have a compelling reason to sell their house (for example this might be as a result of job relocation or ill health) but are unable to do so because of HS2. The government will pay the full, unblighted value for these properties.
The homeowner payment scheme: this will give rural homeowners outside the voluntary purchase area but within 300 metres of the line the opportunity to share early in the benefits of HS2. These payments will be available following Royal Assent of the hybrid Bill for Phase One and will be tapered so that owner occupiers between outside the rural support zone and within 180 metres of the centre line of the railway will receive £22,500, those beyond this and within 240 metres £15,000 and those beyond this and within 300 metres £7,500.
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