control centre for the megaproject<\/a>.<\/p>\nOperations at Cemex\u2019s site included a factory for the manufacture of railway sleepers, an asphalt plant and an aggregate supply business.<\/p>\n
But the compulsory purchase order forced it to move all three business activities to different locations.<\/p>\n
Despite the transport secretary and Cemex agreeing terms for two of the three activities they could not agree over the railway sleeper facility, which took Cemex two years to move to what it described as an inferior location in Rochester, Kent, the High Court heard.<\/p>\n
The dispute led the Midlands-based firm to take the government to court over the amount of compensation offered to it.<\/p>\n
Cemex initially sought just over \u00a359m in compensation for the move.<\/p>\n
However, the government argued the firm had actually made a gain of \u00a34.5m due to a downturn in the market for railway sleepers, London\u2019s High Court heard.<\/p>\n
At a court hearing in September, Cemex\u2019s representatives reduced its estimated loss to \u00a330.5m and those representing the transport secretary accepted it had made a loss, but put the figure at \u00a310.4m.<\/p>\n
Now, Judges Elizabeth Cooke and Peter D McCrea have found in Cemex\u2019s favour and ordered the government to pay \u00a329.9m.<\/p>\n
Cemex was entitled to money for the value of the land, relocation costs, loss of profit, professional fees and other costs under the terms of the compulsory purchase order, the judges found.<\/p>\n
Cemex said the Washwood Heath site was ideal as it was close to the West Coast Mainline and was described as having a favoured position in the market due to its efficiency, flexibility and expertise.<\/p>\n
In an interim decision in May, the court ruled that the Rochester factory had \u201climited capacity which may become a problem when [Network Rail\u2019s] requirement recovers from its current low level\u201d.<\/p>\n
Judges added that the future of Cemex\u2019s business would be \u201chard to predict\u201d.<\/p>\n
In their final judgement, the judges\u00a0said the costs took into account projected future specialist sleeper demand and ongoing sales to Transport for London.<\/p>\n
Judge Cooke said they were \u201cdismay[ed]\u201d the parties had not been able to make agreements between themselves on costs and had given \u201cso little reason\u201d on why they had not.<\/p>\n
The case, they said, was \u201clong and extremely complicated\u201d and featured \u201csubject matter bordering on impenetrable\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The High Court has ordered the government to pay cement and concrete supplier Cemex UK almost \u00a330m in compensation after compulsorily buying its Birmingham factory to make way for HS2. The transport secretary acquired the materials\u2019 firm\u2019s Washwood Heath businesses in Birmingham in 2020 as the land was needed as a control centre for the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43915,"featured_media":420689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39314,578],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-533574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hs2","category-legal"],"yoast_head":"\n
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