Charlesworth, R (on the application of) v Crossrail Ltd & Anor

Where land is acquired voluntarily while compulsory purchase powers exist and would be exercised if agreement fails, it may nevertheless be acquired under threat of compulsion for the purposes of the Crichel Down Rules and a supplementary land-disposal policy. The exception for land already offered for sale applies where the landowner placed it on the market before compulsory acquisition negotiations began. A recent purchaser of the freehold may qualify as a former freeholder, even if the purchase was made to facilitate a resale to the acquiring authority. The court will not infer bad faith or an unlawful device from a commercial purchase and resale without supporting evidence.

The claimant was a long leaseholder of premises compulsorily acquired for the Crossrail works. After construction of the Woolwich station, the surface land became available for redevelopment. Because the land had materially changed in character, the Crichel Down Rules did not require an offer back, and the disposal was governed by the C10 Land Disposal Policy.

The defendant treated the claimant and others, including Berkeley Fifty-Five Limited, as holders of Qualifying Interests. B55 had acquired the freehold shortly before transferring it to Transport for London for £1. The claimant argued that B55’s interest was outside the policy because the land had not been acquired under threat of compulsion, or because it had been offered for sale before negotiations. The central issue was whether B55 was entitled to bid, thereby triggering open-market disposal.

1. The claim was dismissed. The defendant lawfully applied the C10 Policy to the surplus Crossrail land.
2. The material provision was paragraph 3.1 of the C10 Policy, which applied where original land interests had been acquired compulsorily or under threat of compulsory powers and later became available for disposal. Its purpose was essentially the same as rule 7 of the Crichel Down Rules.
3. The existence of compulsory acquisition powers, together with the basis on which the B55 Transfer Agreement was negotiated, established that the freehold was acquired under threat of compulsion. A voluntary agreement with the acquiring authority did not prevent the acquisition from falling within that description where the compulsory powers would otherwise have been exercised.
4. The exception for land publicly or privately offered for sale before acquisition negotiations was directed to a landowner who had already placed the property on the market. It did not apply because compulsory acquisition was imminent when B55 transferred the freehold to TfL.
5. Neither rule 7 nor paragraph 3.1 excluded a person who had recently purchased a freehold interest in land already under threat of compulsory acquisition and intended to resell it to the acquiring authority. The transaction was part of wider commercial arrangements, and there was no evidence of bad faith or of a device intended to defeat the claimant’s rights.
6. The claimant remained a qualifying former leaseholder. The existence of a qualifying former freeholder was additional to, rather than destructive of, his status. Since there were competing qualifying bids, paragraph 5.3 required disposal on the open market.
7. The claimant could not challenge the open-market consequence of competing bids, following R (Pritchett) v Crossrail Ltd [2017] EWCA Civ 317.