HS2 General Vesting Declarations

The High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Act 2017 and the High Speed Rail (West Midlands - Crewe) Act 2021 afford the Secretary of State for Transport the powers of compulsory acquisition of land, of rights over land and for the imposition of restrictions on land. Such acquisitions are subject to procedures set out in the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965 and the Compulsory Purchase (Vesting Declarations) Act 1981. The General Vesting Declaration (GVD) approach is the preferred instrument of the Department for Transport. Each GVD comprises a deed (description of the interests in land being acquired) and a plan (extent of land being acquired) - copies of deeds and plans are available on the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hs2-compulsory-purchase-general-vesting-declarations. The published deeds and plans are the definitive description of land acquired by compulsory means and takes precedence over the published open dataset which is indicative only. Note that 'GVDNumber' is the unique reference for any General Vesting Declaration and the value of 'PERM' in the 'LRType' field refers to a 'Permanent' requirement.