Ian Cunliffe

Ian is a Chartered Surveyor and RICS Expert Witness with over 15 years’ property experience. He has worked on the country’s leading infrastructure projects and has a wide breadth of experience encompassing the promotion of many high-profile compulsory purchase schemes, negotiation and objection management, and other land and property issues. He is recognised as one of the leading surveyors for the promotion of Development Consent Orders, and regularly presents to the National Infrastructure Planning Association and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors on best practice and how to manage consenting and compensation risks. Ian has been instructed on a large number of projects that have been promoted through the Planning Act 2008, primarily for promoters but also for affected landowners, and has provided expert evidence, both oral and written, at Examination.

Before becoming a consultant, Ian was HS2’s lead surveyor for the longest region of Phase 1, responsible for managing a team to deliver 90km of land for the railway, including leading on the petitioning process and responding to over 1,000 petitioners. Prior to working for HS2 Ltd, Ian was Lead Land Programme Manager for EDF Energy’s Nuclear New Build project, responsible for the delivery of land for the new Hinkley Point and Sizewell power stations, and supporting the (successful) submission of the DCO for Hinkley Point. He was recently seconded back on to the Sizewell C project to lead the project through Examination as Expert Witness and successfully led the land acquisition workstream. Ian has acted as Project Director on multiple infrastructure schemes, including Cleve Hill Solar Park, Longfield Solar Farm, Gate Burton Solar Farm, Stonestreet Green Solar Farm, the Vnet Zero Carbon Capture Pipeline, Immingham Green Energy Terminal, the Rail Central freight interchange, the A27 Arundel Bypass, the A358 Taunton Bypass, the A38 Derby Junctions, the M54 Junction 6, A12, M42 and A428 highway improvement schemes and the as well as providing strategic compensation advice to inform negotiations for the Hornsea 4 sub-station site. Ian has also advised a number of acquiring authorities in respect of CPOs, including Oxford County Council and Surrey County Council, as well as Suffolk County Council’s Lake Lothing DCO.

Ian’s experience include: Providing verbal written evidence at Sizewell C Hearings, Aquind Interconnector, Esso’s Southampton to London Pipeline, A38 Derby Junctions, HS2 Select Committee (Commons), Silvertown Tunnel, and Eggborough CCGT. Ian’s experience includes acting as expert witness for DLR as objector to City Airport’s expansion CPO and acting as expert witness for TfL for the Barking Riverside Extension, with Proof Of Evidence, rebuttal, and verbal evidence given.