[2008] EWCA Civ 910, 31 July 2008. (See also L142572 for a previous judgement). Local authority taxpayers must fund a £1.6m windfall gain to a developer. A developer bought a site for £30 000. The site was then compulsorily purchased by an acquiring authority and a dispute arose over the basis of compensation. The council offered half the price paid because this was its value as public open space only, but the developer argued that the land should have an assumed planning permission for the rebuilding of houses and one commercial building, thus entitling it to much greater compensation. Held: appeal dismissed. The Court of Appeal reluctantly agreed with the developer that £1.6m was payable. This is because of special provisions in the legislation that deals with Luftwaffe war damage, which assumes planning permission would be granted to rebuild property in existence before 1 July 1948 but destroyed after 7 January 1937, even though there had not been a development on the land for over 60 years. The Court endorsed recommendations by the Law Commission that such statutory provisions be repealed.