Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

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• Land Ownership Enquiries

Through its road building programme, the Highways Agency has become a significant land and property owner. Not all of the land / property the Agency acquires is ultimately used for a particular road scheme. This means that, after a scheme is opened to traffic, surplus land / property can be disposed of. Land / property also can become surplus if a road scheme is cancelled or changed.

We receive a large number of enquiries asking if we can sell our property and also what property is already for sale. We can only sell property that is surplus to our operational requirements. This land is sold in accordance with Government guidelines to obtain best value for money.  More information about this can be found on the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) website. The Agency registers most of its surplus property with the Homes and Communities Agency along with other public sector organisations. The register can be seen on the Homes and Communities Agency website, but not all of this property is sold on the open market (see Crichel Down rules below).

Any properties that we sell on the open market are sold through our contracted agents Smiths Gore. Their details are available on their website. If you are interested in buying one of our properties you can register your interest with them.

The Crichel Down Rules

Where land / property was originally acquired (i) compulsorily; (ii) under threat of compulsion or (iii) under the statutory blight provisions contained within Chapter II in Part VI of, and Schedule 13 to, the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the Highways Agency is usually obliged to offer back the land / property to the former owners or their successors before marketing more widely. These non-statutory arrangements are known as the Crichel Down Rules. The latest version of the Rules are contained in Part 2 of Circular 06/2004 "Compulsory Purchase and the Crichel Down Rules", which was published by the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on 31 October 2004.  A full copy of the rules can be viewed on the Department for Communities and Local Government website .

When we are satisfied that a sale should be subject to the Crichel Down Rules, we contact the former owners to see if they are interested in re-purchasing. If we cannot find the former owner, we must try to contact them by advertisement. We also have to notify former owners when the exceptions in Rules 10 and 15 apply. One advertisement has to be placed on the Agency's website. This page of the Agency's website is designed for that advertisement. 

Listed below is surplus land / property the Highways Agency is ready to sell but we cannot find the former owner. The former owners of this land / property, or their successors, are requested to contact the Highways Agency office listed below by the date specified, so that the necessary action under the Crichel Down Rules can be completed.

Disposal Notices

View an archive of closed Surplus Land and Property here