Forest City · Land & compulsory purchase
Will Forest City use compulsory purchase?
No. No one's home will be compulsorily purchased for Forest City. Land is secured through voluntary options — negotiated privately with landowners who are free to refuse — and existing homes are integrated into the city, not demolished. Taxpayers don't pay for the land; its cost is built into the price of each home.
Landowners who sell are paid well above agricultural value, and farming families affected by the change will be compensated properly through arrangements negotiated privately, not imposed.
Taxpayers don't pay for the land: its cost, and that compensation, is baked into the price of every home sold. On current costings, housing sales return around £13 billion to the development corporation — roughly double the entire cost of the land and compensation combined — with the surplus contributing to the infrastructure fund.
We set out what this means for the people closest to the plan on our For Haverhill page and our For Neighbours page.