Promoting and enhancing best practice and technical expertise

CPO Talking Heads: May 2026

Land Assembly and Statutory Powers for Water, Sewerage & Flood Defence: Are landowners and tenants subsequent to the delivery of infrastructure?

This event runs as an informal discussion with a small panel of leading and informed practitioners extracting the nuances from this months topic "Land Assembly and Statutory Powers for Water, Sewerage & Flood Defence: Are landowners and tenants subsequent to the delivery of infrastructure?". It will discuss practical issues that arise, with participants in the meeting being encouraged to listen, join in, ask questions and share comments.

The CPA have partnered with CPT Events to bring you CPO Talking Heads.

Start Date Venue Price  
7 May 2026 Virtual Monthly Discussion £55 BOOK

Note: All prices are to be paid in GBP and are subject to VAT at the prevailing rate

Event duration: 1 Hour Topical Panel Discussion.
Registration from: 12.55. Event starts at: 13.00. Event finishes at: 14.00.

Booking Note for CPA Members: The CPA discount code needs to be added during the booking process, followed by selecting 'invoice' to complete your booking.

Water, sewerage and flood-defence infrastructure is politically uncontroversial — until you look at how the land is actually acquired.

Statutory undertakers enjoy some of the most far-reaching land assembly powers on the statute book, often exercised with minimal public visibility and limited scrutiny. These powers were forged for a different era where the norm was nationalised utilities, linear infrastructure, and deferential attitudes to state intervention.

In today’s world - fragmented land ownership, environmental regulation, climate resilience, and heightened awareness of property rights - Do these powers remain appropriate, proportionate, and understood, and do they still work?

This Talking Heads session brings together practitioners who sit on different sides of the fence to examine how these powers are used in practice, where they bite hardest, and why the unwary landowner or occupier (and their agents) are often not prepared when their land and rights are about to be challenged.

Speakers

Programme

  • What powers are actually available to water, sewerage and flood authorities? What does this mean in practice?
  • Are these powers merely effective, or excessively favour public over private interests?
  • The importance of proportionality
  • Are 20th-century powers suitable in the 21st-century landscape?
  • The landowner experience – tips and traps for landowners and their advisors
  • Compensation methodology rules and practice
  • Unintended consequences – pre access to the land, management of the works, post work problems
  • Reform – code of conduct for Utilities?