Lower Thames Crossing Project Update

Surveyor Joe Hearnden examines the progress of the UK’s largest road scheme and explains the steps which BTF is taking to protect affected landowners and businesses.

In March 2025, after 10 years of planning, the Lower Thames Crossing (“LTC”) Development Consent Order (“DCO”) was granted, clearing the legal path for what is heralded as the largest road scheme of a generation. LTC is a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (“NSIP”) which will link Kent and Essex by way of a 14-mile dual carriageway and the longest road tunnel in the United Kingdom. Its opening is projected for the early 2030s, costing £10 billion (according to current estimates). It is also intended to serve as a proving ground for low-carbon construction techniques and the use of hydrogen-powered plant, both of which are untested at this scale. However, this engineering challenge is only part of the story.

Following Chancellor Rachel Reeve’s Spending Review in 2024, the Government confirmed that the scheme would proceed under a private finance model, although no funding partner has yet been secured. In the meantime, the Chancellor remains committed to delivering the project. At the 2025 Autumn Budget, Reeves pledged an additional £891 million of Government spending towards the project, allowing LTC to advance its detailed design and enabling works, ready for construction to begin later in 2026.

For those living and working along LTC’s route, the project may present an existential challenge. Since 2015, BTF’s specialist compulsory purchase & compensation team has acted for affected homeowners, landowners, farmers and businesses, with a broad and comprehensive remit to help affected parties navigate the complexities of this scheme, focussing on delivering practical solutions to mitigate loss, alongside robust valuation and compensation advice.

National Highways has now appointed delivery partners, Skanska, Balfour Beatty, and Bouygues Travaux Publics – Murphy Joint Venture, who are beginning to give physical effect to the powers granted under the DCO by taking possession of land to carry out preliminary enabling works, including the translocation of protected species, the clearance of vegetation, the creation of replacement habitats, and the diversion of essential utilities. Some land will now not be handed back until the road is complete, other parcels, where the project requires, will be requisitioned permanently. BTF is helping clients to ensure that this process runs as smoothly as possible, it is important to ensure that claimants’ livelihoods can continue on their retained land, throughout construction and end-use. More importantly however, so far as money can achieve it, claimants should be kept in the same financial position as if their land had not been taken. These outcomes do not arise by accident; they depend on a host of practical matters being identified early and resolved properly.

For farmers affected by LTC, the period prior to entry is critical. Practical issues such as land drainage, irrigation systems, access, and relocation of displaced stock and tenants need to be resolved, so that the retained holding remains viable as an agricultural unit. Then, annual losses and compensation need to be properly evidenced, quantified and recovered efficiently, to minimise strain on cashflows during a disruptive time. BTF is also currently managing the relocation of local businesses to new premises, handling all compensation matters relating to site procurement, site preparation, and relocation, whilst maintaining business continuity wherever possible. Therefore, BTF’s role is twofold, to help clients to anticipate and overcome practical obstacles, finding ways in which financial losses can be prevented; and to assess compensation where they cannot.

BTF continues to represent several homeowners impacted by LTC. According to National Highways’ DCO Application published in December 2023, a total of 35 residential dwellings need to be compulsorily acquired for demolition and construction of the new road – at the time, they had already acquired 23 of those. However, it is often the case that properties situated outside of the project’s Order Limits can be negatively impacted to such an extent that they cannot be sold on the open market. According to the BBC, data released in December 2025 showed that National Highways has now acquired 71 residential properties at a cost of approximately £50 million, indicating the far-reaching impact of the scheme. In several cases, BTF has compelled National Highways to acquire Blighted properties for their full, no-scheme market value, and are currently working to obtain proper compensation for our clients’ losses while keeping them in control of the process during the time which is left before properties are requisitioned using compulsory purchase in September 2026.

Ultimately, one of the key ways to protect claimant’s interests is to ensure that National Highways have a detailed understanding of the comprehensive scope and complexity of the challenges imposed by LTC, we have achieved this through proactive collaboration and engagement one behalf of all of our clients. Our clients benefit from our tailored advice and have been able to negotiate with National Highways throughout the Development Consent Order process, including outside of statutory timeframes.