| Street | Compensation for land | Other payments reckoned | Gross cost | Receipts from sales of land | Net cost |
| Garrick | £106,691 | £16,521 | £123,212 | £89,072 | £34,140 |
| Southwark | 476,238 | 108,692 | 584,930 | 218,860 | 366,070 |
| Queen Victoria | 2,055,408 | 245,112 | 2,300,520 | 1,224,233 | 1,076,287 |
| High St., Shoreditch | 184,184 | 27,519 | 211,703 | 89,887 | 121,816 |
| Shaftsbury Ave. | 1,004,990 | 131,466 | 1,136,456 | 377,569 | 758,887 |
| Mare St., Hackney | 54,175 | 5,827 | 60,002 | 24,340 | 35,662 |
| Tooley St. Extension | 68,673 | 7,233 | 75,906 | 45,388 | 30,518 |
Most of the remaining streets show a recovery from the sale of surplus land of less than 20 per cent, and doubtless in many of these cases if the taking had been limited to the land necessary for the street there would have been a saving in the net cost. In the case of Gray’s Road Inn, for instance, a simple street widening, the land alone cost $2,017,000 and from sales $422,000 was recovered, which made a net cost of $1,595,000. “Had the board bought only the land needed for street purposes the cost would have been $1,264,000.”[120]
The Metropolitan Board of Works was criticized for not making more liberal takings, and in the history of its successor, the London County Council, many bills were proposed which authorized a more liberal taking of land solely for recoupment purposes. The London County Council, however, continued the policy of the Metropolitan Board of Works and favored as an additional method of paying for the cost of the improvements a special assessment for benefit.
The relative advantages of excess taking for “recoupment” and the levying of an assessment for benefit were the subject of investigation during the history of the London County Council. Members of the old Metropolitan Board of Works were uniform in condemning excess takings as a method of reducing the cost of improvements.[121] In 1894 Mr. Charles Harrison, vice-chairman of the London County Council, said that recoupment as carried out in London had been unsatisfactory and had tended to result in a net loss. Mr. W. H. Dickenson, deputy chairman of the London County Council, was of the opinion that past public improvements had produced a rise in prices which would have made the recoupment operations yield a certain profit had that profit not been eaten up before it had been obtained. Mr. J. F. Moulton, member of the London County Council, gave evidence that “recoupment is almost always a loss, and increases the cost unless you are going through comparatively unoccupied property or property which is used for habitation and not for purposes of trade.” H. L. Cripps, twenty-five years a member of the Metropolitan Board of Works, said, “It may be taken generally that in no single case, according to the opinions of competent surveyors, has recoupment turned out other than an extravagant operation.” As a result of its own experience and that of its predecessor, the Metropolitan Board of Works, the London County Council took the position before every investigating committee of Parliament that the practice of recoupment by the sale of excess lands should give way as both less desirable and less practicable than an assessment for special benefit.
From 1890 to 1898 Parliament refused to grant to the Council the power to assess for special benefit, and in this period practically no large improvement schemes were initiated by the Council. In 1899 the power was granted and was incorporated in the legislation which made possible the King’s Highway improvement from Holborn to the Strand. This is probably the most important large improvement of recent years, and in it are united both the principles of excess condemnation and of assessment for betterment. It has been cited in this country as the strongest illustration of the advantage of excess taking as a method of recouping the cost of an improvement.
It is impossible to get accurate figures on the net cost of this improvement since much of the excess land taken is not yet sold or leased, and since it is not certain what portion of the original cost has been returned to the city by sale of excess land and what portion has been returned by assessment for benefit. The cost of land taking and improvement is variously estimated from £4,862,500 to £7,000,000. The last figure includes approximately £2,000,000 for interest charges covering a period of at least fifteen years. The most favorable estimate of the return is £5,000,000, which includes the return from the benefit assessment, making the net cost of the improvement approximately £2,000,000, or the amount of interest charges during the period of development.[122]
In analyzing these figures it must be remembered that they were submitted by a political party opposed to the one which initiated the scheme, and items of cost are included which are more than offset by indirect gains that are not easily reducible to figures. The physical results accomplished by the King’s Highway would have been impossible without the very liberal use of excess taking. The very satisfactory financial result may be due in a large measure to the advantageous lease of surplus land, but, considering the opinion of best informed authorities in London and the history of London street improvements from 1859 to 1900, and considering further that some part of the return in the case of the King’s Highway is the result of betterment assessments on property not acquired, it seems unwise to lay too great stress on the King’s Highway improvement as a precedent for the use of excess taking merely as a method of recoupment.
The causes of the general failure of excess taking to give satisfactory financial returns in London are much the same as they are in France:
First, the cost of acquiring excess land is great because of extravagant jury awards and because of the practice of paying for trade interests and for the “goodwill” of such businesses as are obliged to seek other locations. Mr. Harrison, vice-chairman of the County Council, is of the opinion that recoupment cases show not that there is a loss on the land which is acquired, but that the loss arises exclusively from buying what can not be resold (trade interests), and represents great waste, legal costs, and other items of expenditure attached to each interest.[123] Mr. Dickenson, deputy chairman of the County Council, believes that even if the fee simple alone were taken and the leasehold and subleasehold interests allowed to run out, extravagant prices would be paid and that it would be best to “intercept the benefit” by means of a betterment tax. The fee simple alone would cost at least 10 per cent more than the market value, and to that sum must be added much more in costs.[124]
Second, the effect on values of an improvement is uncertain. In every country where excess taking is practiced it is the common experience to find that occupation of all kinds adapts itself slowly to a considerable change in the street plan. This phenomenon is not dependent on racial characteristics. In Paris, in the cities of Belgium, and in London at least eight years, as has been noted, were necessary before the city or property owners received the benefit expected from the change.