Cases - Fairmount Investments v Secretary of State for the Environment

Record details

Name

Fairmount Investments v Secretary of State for the Environment

Date

[1976]

Citation

2 AII ER 865

Keywords

Planning control

Summary

A compulsory purchase order was sought in respect of a number of houses which the local authority said were unfit for human habitation. Fairmount contested this and claimed that the houses could be rehabilitated. An inquiry was held and the inspector upheld the order on the ground that the foundations were inadequate and so the houses could not be rehabilitated. The question of the inadequacy of the foundations had not been raised by the local authority before or at the inquiry.

The House of Lords held that there had been a breach of the rules of natural justice. The appellants had not been given any opportunity to deal with the suggestion that the foundations were inadequate. The inspector should either have reconvened the hearing or, in a straightforward case like this, invited views on his provisional conclusions.