Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

Compulsory purchase and your right to object

If we need to buy your home for a road scheme, we will write to you and explain what your rights are.

The Secretary of State for Transport has the right to buy your land and property if it is needed for a trunk road scheme. You must sell the land or property if the Secretary of State asks you to. When acting for the Secretary of State, we must follow strict procedures which are there to protect your rights.

We will prepare draft orders, including a compulsory purchase order, setting out the precise areas of land and property we need for a road.

If any part of your home or property is included in the draft compulsory purchase order, we will write to you to let you know when the draft order has been published and when you must make your objections or comments. We will also give you a copy of the draft compulsory purchase order.

You will have at least 21 days from the draft compulsory purchase order being published to make an objection. There will be a longer objection period for other orders.

If your home is directly affected by the draft compulsory purchase order and we cannot sort out your objections, we will:

• hold a local public inquiry where you will be able to argue your case;
• give you at least six weeks' notice about the start of the inquiry and give you booklets explaining how you can let the independent inspector know what your objections are; and
• let you know the decision of the Secretaries of State for the Environment and for Transport on whether and how they will go ahead with the scheme.

This procedure does not apply to objections about the amount of compensation.

If the Secretaries of State for the Environment and for Transport decide to go ahead with the compulsory purchase order, you can challenge it in the High Court within six weeks of the announcement that the order has been made.