Commentary on provisions of the Act Compulsory acquisition of land Section 5: Acquisition of rights in land
Section 5(1), (2) and (3) give the Secretary of State power to acquire rights over land (instead of acquiring the whole of a person’s interest in land). This includes power to acquire or create easements and other rights and, in the case of land specified in Schedule 7, to impose restrictive covenants.
	Subsection (4) provides that, in the case of land specified in Schedule 8, only rights in land may be compulsorily acquired for the purposes mentioned in the table.
	Subsection (5) enables the Secretary of State by order to provide that a person specified in the order may exercise the powers under the Act to acquire rights or impose restrictive covenants. Some of the land within the Act limits, particularly that outside the limits of deviation but within the land to be acquired or used, is intended to be used for the diversion of statutory undertakers’ apparatus. An order made under subsection (5) could enable a statutory undertaker to create the rights in land necessary to effect the diversion of the apparatus rather than those rights being acquired by the Secretary of State for the benefit of the undertaker.
	Subsection (7) introduces Schedule 9, which makes provision to apply compulsory purchase legislation to the creation of rights, or imposition of restrictive covenants.