Letter for Publication – HS2’s draft Prolonged Disturbance Compensation Scheme
Letter for Publication
HS2’s draft Prolonged Disturbance Compensation Scheme
Treating Camden’s Residents with Contempt
How does HS2 Ltd respond to a strong recommendation by a Select Committee that 1,300 households in Camden who are to be subjected to 17 years of inconvenience and disruption by HS2 works (unprecedented both in intensity and duration) should receive a package of compensation measures at an estimated cost of some £230m to £350m?
The answer is to design a Prolonged Disturbance Compensation Scheme which addresses a completely different policy objective, with eligibility criteria which are so restrictive that no one is predicted to benefit.
On 15 December 2016, the Select Committee recommended that 1,300 households who qualify for noise insulation, should be offered the following compensation:
(i) Owner-occupiers should be entitled to participate in the Voluntary Purchase Scheme. This is the right to require the government to acquire the property at the unblighted price.
(ii) Owner-occupiers should also benefit from the Cash Option. This is 10% of the unblighted value with a minimum of £30k and a maximum of £100k.
(iii) Residential tenants who do not qualify as owner-occupiers should also be entitled to a “Lump Sum” of £10,000.
On 17 January 2017, the government accepted the recommendation that households in close proximity to the construction works who are subject to severe and prolonged noise and disturbance resulting from the construction of HS2 should be entitled to additional compensation. The government promised a scheme that would be “fair, reasonable and proportionate, in the spirit of the strong recommendation of the Select Committee”.
Rather than provide additional funding for this purpose, the government have rather required HS2 to devise a compensation scheme which is to be funded from their existing budget. The scheme that it has devised purports to offer households the option of compensation when they would otherwise be subject to noise which would render their homes uninhabitable.
However, the criteria are so restrictive that no household is currently predicted to qualify. They would only become eligible if the actual noise is substantially worse than that predicted in the Supplementary Environmental Statement (“SES”). Residents were assured that the SES set out the worst possible scenario, the effects of which would be mitigated by the “Best Practical Means” which all contractors are expected to adopt under the Code of Construction Practice.
HS2 suggest that their scheme addresses the issues raised by the Select Committee. It does not. The cost of the scheme will be zero if HS2 construct the scheme within the scope of the SES. If they now consider that they are unable to do this, the government should rather be offering additional compensation to that recommended by the Select Committee.
We call upon HS2 to withdraw this ineffective and inadequate scheme and to devise a new one that offers the fair compensation strongly recommended by the Select Committee.
Your truly
Keir Starmer, QC, MP, Holborn & St Pancras
Tulip Siddiq, MP, Hampstead and Kilburn
Andrew Dismore, London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden
Councillor Georgia Gould, Leader, Camden Council
Councillor Oliver Cooper, Leader, Conservatives, Camden Council
Councillor Flick Rea, Leader, Liberal Democrats, Camden Council
David Auger, Mornington Terrace
Luisa Auletta and Matt Hollier, Co-Chairs, Camden Cutting Group
Guy Burkill QC, Park Village East Heritage Group
Dorothea Hackman, Chair, Camden Civic Society
Fran Heron, Chair, Ampthill Square TRA
Gous Khan, Verity Fletcher, Drummond Street TRA
Robert Latham, Silsoe House
John Myers, Secretary, CHARGE (Chargegroup.org)
Sandra Nicholls and Dick Booth, Mornington Place
Mohammed Salique, Chair, Drummond Street Neighbourhood Forum.
Revd Anne Stevens, Vicar and PCC of St Pancras Church
Anthony Stoll, Chair, Netley School Governing Body
Ward Councillors for Regents Park, St Pancras and Somers Town, and Camden Town with Primrose Hill,
