Five Things Landowners Need To Know About The New Electronic Communications Code

This alert was first published as an article in Property Week

The Digital Economy Act 2017 sets out a new Electronic Communications Code (to come into force on a date to be appointed by the Secretary of State) designed to put in place modern regulation to support the timely and cost-effective roll-out of digital communications infrastructure. It overhauls the existing Code (contained in Schedule 2 of the Telecommunications Act 1984) and seeks to strike a balance between the competing interests of landowners, operators and the wider public. In doing so it introduces a number of provisions of note to landowners.

1. The test for the imposition of Code rights

Under the new Code, before imposing Code rights on a landowner, the court must be satisfied that the prejudice to the landowner caused by the making of the order can be adequately compensated by money and is outweighed by the resulting public benefit. This differs from the test under the existing Code which only