IF you are a property owner affected by HS2 and live within certain parameters and the route in your area has been ‘safeguarded’, you can sell your property to HS2 Ltd.

They are offering 110 per cent of the market value plus all legal and removal expenses. But what about tenants?

In the Hybrid Bill for Phase 1, it states that ‘under some circumstances tenants who rent properties may be entitled to a payment of £5,800 plus reasonable moving expenses’.

The Bill places full responsibility on each affected local authority to re-house affected tenants.

We have to ask how many local authorities have sufficient housing stock to cater for this demand created by HS2. I fear the answer will be none.

Surely each tenant should expect to be re-housed in the equivalent of the property that he or she has to vacate; especially those who are perfectly happy living where they do and, were it not for HS2, would not have contemplated moving elsewhere.

The chances of being re-housed in a similar property are less than zero.

It should be borne in mind that the current legislation covering Phase 1 treats them as an afterthought - one small paragraph - and as distinctly second class citizens.

So I suggest that a scale of compensation be created based upon the length of time spent in the property.

For example, for every six months of occupation, up to a maximum of five years occupation, the equivalent of three months rent.

Thus for two years occupation the tenant would receive the equivalent of one year’s rental and for five years the equivalent of 30 months rental; which at £600pcm would equate to £18,000.

Add the £10,000 ‘reasonable costs of removal’ and the tenant would receive £28,000 compensation, enough to fund the finding of a new rental property of a similar nature, without having to rely on his or her local authority to house them.

Ewen Simpson