Commentary on provisions of the Act Compulsory acquisition of land Section 7: Acquisition of airspace
Certain works for the railway may require the taking of only the airspace above land shown on the deposited plans rather than the totality of the land. Subsection (1) enables the Secretary of State to acquire compulsorily only the airspace over land, without acquiring the land itself.
	Subsection (2) disapplies the provisions of the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965 and the Compulsory Purchase (Vesting Declarations) Act 1981 which enable a landowner, in certain cases where it is proposed to purchase only part of property, to require the whole of the property to be acquired on the ground that taking that part of the land would result in material detriment to the remainder of the land. The result is that where only airspace over land is acquired, the Secretary of State cannot be required to acquire a greater interest in the property.