Landowners warned over ‘rip-off ’ phone mast deals
Farmers have been warned not to get ripped off by telecommunications companies who are seeking to cash in on new legislation aimed at improving mobile coverage across the country by offering drastically reduce rental payments for new phone mast agreements.
Revealing that mobile operators were pushing the new legislation to its limits by offering as little as £5 a year for radio mast sites, Mike Reid, head of utilities with land agents Galbraiths, said that similar deals would have earned in excess of £5,000 in the past.
Stating that one company had offered a one-off payment of just over £30 for a ten-year lease of a site that currently is rented for in excess of £7,000 per annum, he said that telecom firms were seeking to slash rental payments under cover of the new Electronic Communications Code which was introduced in December to speed nationwide access to the digital economy.
But Reid said that the phone operators’ approach to the legislation was likely to result in landowners resisting new agreements – a move which could spell fewer sites being available leading to a delay the rollout of networks:
“And this is the opposite effect to the purpose intended by the introduction of the new code,” he warned.
He said that in addition to bringing vastly reduced rents, some terms being proposed by operators gave them more rights than they had been granted under the code – and they were also looking to limit liabilities imposed under the code, all to the detriment of the landowner.
“Landowners generally support efforts to achieve better connectivity, but I doubt they’ll be prepared to agree to the proposals currently being put forward by the phone companies,” said Reid. “This is not the solution property owners had in mind.” Reid claimed that a government impact assessment carried out before the new law came in envisaged rents would fall by around 40 per cent.
“However, based on what could be a misunderstanding of the code, operators are offering a range of consideration payments from £3 a year for greenfield sites that previously attracted rents in excess of £5,000 per annum, and £50 for rooftop sites that previously commanded rents of around £12,000 per annum,” said Reid who added that it was therefore crucial that landowners sought professional advice before signing any new agreement.