Landowners have historically put unproductive parts of their
land to use by allowing telecoms operators to site apparatus on
them and charging the operators market rents. Increasingly, digital
communication is perceived as a basic need, similar to gas,
electricity and water, therefore demand for suitable sites to
provide the infrastructure will only increase, particularly with
the projected introduction of 5G technology.
In anticipation of this, the new Electronic Communications Code
(the Code), introduced in 2018, changed the basis on which the
valuation of such potential sites is calculated. It was felt by
government that the value of agreements between landowners and
telecoms operators should closer reflect the price that utilities
companies pay landowners for wayleaves. While a landowner and
operator would usually agree the terms of a deal, the Code provides
a mechanism for an imposed settlement which produces a result much
less generous to the landowner.
