RTPI Scotland response to compulsory purchase reform in Scotland

On 19 December 2025, RTPI Scotland submitted a response to the Scottish Government's consultation on compulsory purchase reform in Scotland. Read the response below.

About the RTPI

At the Royal Town Planning Institute (the RTPI), we champion the value of planning in building thriving places and communities. With over 27,000 members worldwide, we support planners at every stage of their career: raising professional standards, shaping planning policy, and proudly awarding chartered status, the highest professional accreditation in UK planning. For over a century we have empowered planners to deliver positive impact: creating healthy, inclusive, economically and environmentally sustainable places. As the voice of the profession, we advocate, support, and lead with purpose, professionalism, and passion.

Decluttering the CPO legislative landscape

RTPI Scotland welcomes these reform proposals that will serve to declutter the CPO legislative landscape. We agree that compulsory purchase is a powerful tool to deliver a wide range of projects in the public interest and which deliver the National Outcomes and objectives of Scotland’s National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4). The way that compulsory purchase legislation has developed over the last 180 years (i.e. following the 1845 Act) has resulted in a CPO system that is overly complex, difficult to understand, and in many ways outdated. For it to become an effective tool for bringing forward essential projects, we agree that the legislative slate needs to be wiped clean, through the repeal of existing legislation on CPO procedures and compensation, and by bringing it under a single statute.

The integration and alignment of CPO processes

In addition to decluttering the legislative landscape, there is also opportunity for CPO to align itself with other tools and policies that can help to deliver positive outcomes in the public interest. For example, there is potential for CPOs to be used as a mechanism to deliver masterplan consent area (MCA) schemes, as well as to deliver the outcomes of local place plans, regional spatial strategies, local development plans (LDP) and NPF4, including local and regional infrastructure, housing and biodiversity enhancement. Such alignment could have the benefit of encouraging, for example, the use of back-to-back CPOs (as per Question 8 of the consultation paper) by pulling together resources for multiple processes and carrying them forward holistically. Taking such a joined-up approach (in line with the Place Principle) would have the added benefit of helping to facilitate early and effective engagement between acquiring authorities and affected parties (as per Question 9 of the consultation paper). Embedding CPO consultation exercises into the consultation exercises of other existing processes (such as the LDP and MCA processes) would help utilise more efficiently and effectively limited resources, allowing for joined up early engagement, and reducing the likelihood of community consultation fatigue. We agree with the consultation paper that promoting early and effective engagement through non-statutory measures is preferable to legislating these requirements – which would likely not enable the flexibility required to incorporate CPO engagement in with other engagement practices, as deemed appropriate.

In addition, we are aware that Scotland is the only remaining nation in the UK where the Electricity Act 1989 is the primary legislation used for the consenting of large energy projects. This has resulted in the deviation by England and Wales away from the compulsory purchase powers set out in the Electricity Act 1989, to which Scotland is still held. Our members have expressed the view that as part of wider CPO reform, the Scottish Government should work jointly with the UK Government to modernise compulsory purchase powers under the Electricity Act 1989 to ensure equivalent and up to date land rights and acquisition mechanisms for electricity infrastructure are applicable across the UK.

The use of CPO to address the housing emergency

The Scottish Government declared a housing emergency in May 2024, as has a number of local authorities. In the Planning and Housing Emergency – Delivery Plan, published in November 2024, compulsory purchase is recognised as a potential tool to enable local authorities and others to deliver more homes.

RTPI Scotland agrees that compulsory purchase could be a vital tool to bring vacant and derelict land back into use for housing. However, related to our point above, this cannot be achieved in isolation; CPOs must work with other mechanisms in the toolkit to identify, acquire, and deliver land for housing purposes. For example, and as previously mentioned, MCAs are also recognised in the Delivery Plan as a tool for delivering more housing, as are new style LDPs for bringing forward a pipeline of deliverable housing land. We are aware that as part of the LDP preparation process, local planning authorities often put out a call for sites that they can assess for allocation in the LDP. In addition to this, it is also important that local planning authorities assess the potential of land to deliver housing using their compulsory purchase powers as an acquiring authority – facilitating early engagement with landowners/occupants and other affected parties on this matter through the LDP preparation process. This approach would recognise CPOs as a legitimate (and essential) mechanism to deliver spatial planning objectives.

Another way to facilitate the use of CPOs to address the housing emergency is through the creation of a housing delivery body that recognises housing as critical infrastructure. This is a key ask in our RTPI Scotland Planifesto. We believe such a body could support local authorities or be an acquiring authority itself, using compulsory purchase powers to deliver much needed housing projects, as well as to bring vacant and derelict housing stock back into use.

Achieving equitable outcomes in the public interest

There are questions throughout the consultation paper about ways to modernise CPO legislation and better align it with current land use, communication and data collection practices etc.

We fully support this approach to modernise the CPO process including:

Enabling publication of the CPO and map on a suitable website in addition to making them available at a specified location (question 19).
Giving Scottish Ministers the power to prescribe common data standards through secondary legislation for compulsory purchase documentation (question 22).
Allowing compulsory purchase notices to be served by electronic means where a party has agreed and provided an email address for this purpose (question 23)

Notwithstanding the above, the reason for utilising compulsory purchase powers is for the public interest. It stands to reason, therefore, that the CPO procedures should also be in the public interest (including those affected by a CPO). Reformed legislation must embed the principles of fairness and equity into CPO processes, understanding that some individuals will be better equipped than others (in terms of their skills, knowledge, health etc.) to understand the implications of and their rights and responsibilities under CPO legislation, including with respect to making a CPO claim. In this regard, the first principle of any new legislation should be that no individual affected by a CPO should be at either an advantage or disadvantage compared to other affected parties. Consequently, although we are supportive of publication of a CPO and map on a website, we also believe it is important to continue to publicise CPOs in local newspapers and in community facilities, and to make a physical copy available for viewing at a known and suitable location (question 20). We also believe that the process should be as transparent as possible, with affected parties given a clear understanding of their rights from the outset – including their rights to compensation to achieve the principle of equivalence.

Resourcing and skills

We are aware that current barriers to local authorities utilising their compulsory purchase powers include a lack of clarity and understanding around the CPO process, exacerbated by existing resourcing pressures.

This could be somewhat remedied through the repeal and reform of legislation into one statute, which we fully support. However, we also believe that for the power of CPOs to be fully realised, local planning authority officers need to have access to the right knowledge and skills to proceed with confidence and clarity to utilise these powers. Reformed legislation will only go so far in this regard. We believe that legislative reform should be coupled with learning and support to local planning authorities, to help them understand how, when and in what circumstances CPOs can be used as an effective tool to deliver development projects in the public interest. In relation to support and learning, we are aware that the National Planning Hub is undertaking excellent work to support planning authorities in relation to housing, renewable energy and supporting local development plans. We believe there is scope for CPOs to be included in this package of support, particularly given the role of CPOs to deliver renewable energy and housing proposals.

This type of support will be even more crucial should the reformed CPO legislation introduce additional powers that could place increased pressures on resources. For example, the proposals in the consultation paper to introduce compulsory sale and compulsory lease powers (in addition to compulsory purchase powers), and the proposal to introduce a power to confirm CPOs subject to conditions. These additional powers, albeit potentially useful to bring land back into viable use, also potentially bring further complexities to an already complex system. If such powers are to be introduced, they must be coupled with necessary support mechanisms (including guidance, training and funding) if they are to be effective.