Stafford MP Leigh Ingham has introduced legislation intended to stop owners of deliberately neglected buildings automatically recovering legal and professional fees during compulsory purchase proceedings.
The Labour MP said councils can currently be required to compensate an owner for a property and meet that owner's professional costs even where prolonged neglect helped make public intervention necessary.
Her Compulsory Purchase (Fees) Bill would remove that automatic entitlement where an owner deliberately allowed a building to deteriorate and the neglect contributed to the compulsory purchase order. It would not remove rights from property owners generally.
Ingham cited the former jobcentre in Greyfriars, Stafford, which she said had become unsafe and attracted vandalism and antisocial behaviour. She also referred to a derelict former pub in Sutton that helped inspire her "no reward for neglect" campaign.
The proposal is designed to reduce one financial barrier to councils acquiring problem buildings and bringing them back into productive use. Ingham argued that compulsory purchase could also open routes into community ownership.
MPs allowed the bill to receive its first reading on Wednesday. It is scheduled for second reading on 5 February 2027, when it will need further parliamentary support to progress.
