Professional AdviceYou are here : News and Press » News Archive » Wayleaves and Easements
|
Pay market rent for phone mast sites, CLA tells mobile operators The CLA has warned that market rent must be paid by mobile communications operators for it to be worthwhile for landowners to host mobile phone masts on their land. A consultation by the Law Commission has set out proposals to reform the Electronic Communication Code, a legal document which oversees the dealings between network operators and landowners. The consultation proposes a change to the basis under which landowners and occupiers would be paid for telecommunications apparatus sited on private land.
CLA President Harry Cotterell said: "The suggestion that payments should be based on compulsory purchase principles - rather than on a freely negotiated market value basis - is deeply concerning for CLA members."
The Law Commission suggests an alternative might be a "compensation-plus" approach, with payment of a fixed statutory percentage over and above the level of compensation. If no compensation were due, a minimum amount would be paid.
Mr Cotterell said: "If this proposal were to be adopted, rental payments for mast sites could fall from several thousand pounds a year, to the level of payment paid for a National Grid pylon, currently between £87 and £147 a year.
"The CLA is wholly opposed to this suggestion. Mobile operators are companies run for profit and as such should pay the market price. They choose sites which will be economically viable based on demand."
He added: "The current market value approach has worked for the majority of cases and has not stopped the roll-out of both mobile and landline telecommunications to the vast majority of the population. If there is no incentive to host apparatus, landowners will not want to host masts on their land."
Read the Law Commission's consultation on the Electronic Communications Code. |
Contact Dr Charles Trotman
Join the CLA today
The CLA Game Fair 2013
Partnership Opportunities Discover how a corporate partnership with the CLA could help your business. More articles and documents [Guidance notes] [5 September 2006] CLA44 - Gas and Oil Pipelines [Advisory handbooks] [9 October 2007] Necessary Wayleave Regime: Consultation on Proposed Reforms to the Electricity Act Process [Consultation response archive] [29 November 2012] |
An economist, advises on rural economic issues, particularly food policy, rural tourism, equine issues and telecommunications policy. 
- Policy Topics
- Policy Topics
- Site sections
- Specially for members
© 2013 Country Land and Business Association Limited (CLA). All rights reserved. No part of this website may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without prior written permission of the copyright holder except as expressly permitted by law.
Disclaimer
No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action in reliance on or as a result of the material included in or omitted in this website can be or is accepted by the author(s), the CLA or its officers or trustees or employees or any other persons.
The Advisory Services are made available to members on the basis that members' rights to compensation and the liability (if any) of CLA and its officers and/or its staff advisers, are restricted in the following ways. In the event of any advice given by any CLA staff adviser being given negligently or otherwise being incorrect no liability whatsoever is accepted by the CLA or its officers or by its staff advisers concerned
(a) towards any person who is not the current CLA member to whom the advice was directly given,
(b) to any person in the respect of consequential loss or loss of profits, or
(c) to any person for any sum exceeding £50,000 in respect of any one enquiry (whether made or responded to orally or in writing and whether dealt with at one time or over a period of time).
Any person making use of the Advisory Services accepts such restrictions. Members should refer to appropriate professional advisers in private practice before taking any particular course of action potentially or actually involving any substantial amounts of money.
Please note that whilst the advisers are able to advise on a wide range of subjects relating to land ownership, they cannot act in place of a member's own solicitor, accountant, surveyor and tax specialist by, for example, drafting documents or corresponding on their behalf and may be precluded, by the rules of their own professions, from advising one CLA member against another CLA member in the case of conflict.
Solicitors Indemnity Fund . Solicitors in the CLA Legal Team are not covered by the Solicitors Indemnity Fund in relation to professional negligence in relation to any advice given by them.
Please note that from time to time telephone calls maybe recorded for training purposes.