UK Power lines tank House prices

[Guest guest]

Pylon cancer fears put £7bn blight on house prices

By Nic Fleming, Medical Correspondent

(Filed: 29/04/2006)

 

Up to £7 billion will be wiped off property values if

the Government accepts the advice of experts that

homes should no longer be built near overhead power

lines because of possible links with childhood

leukaemia.

 

About 130,000 houses could lose between 10 per cent

and a quarter of their re-sale price if ministers take

the advice of a committee set up by the Department of

Health.

 

Research continues into whether pylons are responsible

for increased cases of leukaemia

 

A draft of a report by the committee, seen by The

Daily Telegraph, states that building houses within

230ft of high voltage power lines and 115ft of lower

voltage lines should be banned.

 

The confidential document, written by John Swanson,

the scientific adviser to the National Grid, considers

the option of compulsorily buying all 75,000 homes in

England and Wales that are affected.

 

But a more recent paper, written last month, sets out

the group's preferred option - an end to the building

of houses near overhead lines and a ban on new power

lines being built near existing homes.

 

The draft report acknowledges that implementing this

as a policy could wipe a quarter off the value of

25,000 homes within 230ft of 400kv and 275kv overhead

transmission lines and some 10 per cent from the value

of 55,000 houses within 460ft of them.

 

It also admits there could be a reduction of 15 per

cent in the value of 50,000 homes within 100ft of the

lower voltage 132kv power lines.

 

The documents are the work of the Stakeholder Advisory

Group on Extremely Low Frequency Electromagentic

Fields (Sage). This committee was set up by the DoH in

October 2004 following the publication of a report by

Dr Gerald Draper, of the Oxford childhood cancer

research group.

 

Dr Draper suggested that children under 15 living near

high voltage power lines could have a 69 per cent

increased risk of getting leukaemia.

 

Some scientists pointed out that while the research

found a statistical association, it did not establish

a causal link and they rejected the findings.

 

Sage includes representatives of the DoH, the National

Grid, the Health Protection Agency, the Office of the

Deputy Prime Minister and the Council of Mortgage

Lenders.

 

Academics from the University of Bristol and

Nottingham Trent University are also members, as well

as a number of campaigners from groups committed to

highlighting what they believe are the potential

dangers of electromagnetic fields.

 

Nicholas Ashe, of Property Vision, a leading firm of

country house and estate buying agents, said the

potential loss of value to properties could be even

greater than Sage's working group predicts.

 

He said: " The higher the value of the house, the

greater the impact. We are talking about reductions of

up to 50 per cent.

 

" For the kind of country house we find for clients,

the majority of the market would be wiped out and

properties could become almost unsaleable.

 

" It would have the same affect as building a road

nearby or the property being under a new flight path. "

 

The draft Sage report, dated last November,

acknowledges that power lines already have an impact

on property values, with a home in a rural location

within 165ft of a National Grid transmission line

losing 15 per cent of its value.

 

It considers potential policy options if the

Government were to decide that no one should be

allowed to live within 230ft of power lines.

 

These include the compulsory purchase and demolition

of all houses near the lines.

 

" This section considers the more modest policy of

applying this prospectively, ie stopping any new homes

from being built near power lines but not doing

anything directly with existing homes.

 

" However one possible consequence of this

prospective-only policy is that it nonetheless causes

devaluation of existing properties. "

 

The report lists four scenarios for the loss of value

caused by the Government adopting Sage's preliminary

advice. This amounts to between £3 billion and £7

billion.

 

The report will be presented to the Government in June

along with another report on new advice on electrical

wiring within the home.

 

It states that whether home and landowners could claim

compensation from electricity companies will depend

partly on the contractual arrangements between the

parties, and whether the Government introduces

compulsory or voluntary measures.

 

Whatever happens, it seems likely that the overall

costs will ultimately be borne by consumers.

 

A spokesman for the National Grid said: " We are not

going to disclose any details until the firm

conclusions of the group are published this summer. "

 

Questions remain: Page 10

 

26 April 2006: Experts rule out houses near pylons

13 December 2005: 12,000 object to 200ft pylons in the

Highlands

10 September 2003[Money]: Insurers fear wave of claims

over pylons

6 October 2002: New evidence links power lines and

cancer

 

Questions remain over pylons

 

Case study: Blighted by cables

 

The power game

 

 

Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the

copyright of Telegraph Group Limited and must not be

reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full

copyright statement see Copyright