> building infrastructure is good actually
It was never about "building infrastructure", though, which is why they used Compulsory Purchase to force farmers to sell their land for pennies. Because obviously "undeveloped" land without any sort of planning consent is worth very little.
Now those bits of land, which have been put through the planning system and can now be built on, are not being used for HS2. So, they're being sold back to the farmers, right?
No, they're being sold for thousands of times the purchase price to property developers run by the people who donate the most to the government.
It's a land grab, same as the "inheritance tax on farms" thing.
Do you know how Compulsory Purchase Orders work?
Many people along the HS2 route have been paid double the market price of their house
Yes, because a demolished house is a brownfield site which automatically has outline planning consent and you can build just about anything you like on it. It's worth a fortune.
A farmer's field without planning consent is bought from the farmer priced as a worthless patch of mud, but taxed as though it already had a couple of dozen £500k rabbit hutch houses built on it.
> A farmer's field without planning consent is bought from the farmer priced as a worthless patch of mud, but taxed as though it already had a couple of dozen £500k rabbit hutch houses built on it.
Farm land isn't taxed - it's exempt from business rates
Doesn’t matter what the price is if you lose your community.
Very narrow minded view that doesn’t take into account people over 60
Everything in UK politics takes into account people over 60. What we need is some policies taking into account people under 60.
The over 60s in the UK are probably the most privileged demographic in the history of the nation.
Just last October the government reduced tax free savings allowances on the Cash ISA for everyone...except he over 60s.
The over 60s have iron-clad "triple locked" state pensions that are _guaranteed_ to grow unsustainably (faster than tax revenue) at the cost of the working tax payer.
We need infrastructure and productivity growth, so the over 60s can take their gold plated compulsory buyouts and go do one.
As someone who is in their 50s I'd disagree with you
Very few people are losing their communities due to HS2
So there are some…
>>though, which is why they used Compulsory Purchase to force farmers to sell their land for pennies. Because obviously "undeveloped" land without any sort of planning consent is worth very little.
Did you ever look into any of it? Because it's 100000% nonsense. One of the reasons why HS2 is over budget so much is because farmers are being paid absolutely through the nose for smallest chunks of land taken for it. Compulsory purchase has to pay the market rate, and in most cases it pays well above that.
>>No, they're being sold for thousands of times the purchase price to property developers run by the people who donate the most to the government.
I'd love to see an example of any piece of land being sold for "thousands of times the purchase price", it would be quite incredible. And the land goes back to auction, anyone can bid on it so not sure how exactly is it sold to "people who donate the most" - care to explain? Or better yet, give an example?
>>It's a land grab, same as the "inheritance tax on farms" thing.
Yes, nothing to do with people like the Percy family owning half of Northumerland for the last 700 years and never paying any inheritance tax on it because they farm on some of it. Nuh huh.
You really need a better source of information.