Part 9: Compulsory Purchase Procedure Section 185: Time limits for implementation Background
Section 4 of the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965 and section 5A of the Compulsory Purchase (Vesting Declarations) Act 1981 set out the timeframe in which compulsory purchase powers under a CPO must be implemented after it has been confirmed. In both cases the current time period is 3 years.
	Sections 4A and 5B of the respective Acts allow for an extension to this time period where there is a legal challenge to the CPO. Both sections do so by reference to ‘the three year period’ in the preceding section.
	This section amends these sections and inserts a new section 13D into the Acquisition of Land Act 1981 to give confirming authorities the flexibility to allow a longer implementation period where appropriate.
	This measure will give acquiring authorities greater confidence to bring forward more complex schemes, for example, regeneration schemes, which in some cases may need longer than three years to implement.
	The effect of this section is to give acquiring authorities longer than three years to implement a CPO after it has been confirmed where a confirming authority considers this is justified.