Member

The effect of this is deeply unsatisfactory and a blocker to growth. It means that land that has been sold on the basis of an unchallenged decision that it is in the public interest to disposed of it and that may now have lawful planning permission for beneficial repurposing is none the less permanently bound by the statutory trust and cannot be put to its intended beneficial reuse. Given that the advertising cannot be done retrospectively, the land is potentially blighted forever. This sits uncomfortably with the public law principle that unchallenged public decisions should be treated as valid, and it sits equally uncomfortably with the property law principle that a bona fide purchaser, without notice of equitable interest, takes land unencumbered by those interests.