Telecoms Utilities and Infrastructure
For more information, please contact:
Nat Cartwright Senior Associate 020 7880 4429
Our Telecoms Utilities and Infrastructure Team is headed up by Nat Cartwright, a Senior Associate in our Real Estate and Projects Department.
Utility
This team supports our acquisitions lawyers with development services including utility connections for gas, electric, water and fibre.
Statutory undertakers and utility providers have a legal obligation to provide new service connections, as well as to maintain and upgrade their existing distribution network in the areas within which they operate. Doing so sometimes requires positioning equipment such as cables, poles, substations, pipes, gas governors, sewers and pumping stations on private land. When this is necessary, they secure said apparatus by legal agreement (using Wayleaves and/or Deeds) with landowners. This helps to ensure that the equipment stays where it has been placed and can be maintained when necessary. We also have experience acting for our clients in connection with ESCO and EV Charging leases in this team, which can be more complex in nature and require tailored legal advice.
Infrastructure
Another primary focus in this team is infrastructure.
New developments will often be subject to planning conditions, and it is not unusual for these to include specific infrastructure requirements including adoption agreements for new estate roads and sewers. The team works closely with local highways authorities and water companies in respect to common forms of infrastructure agreements including:
- s104/116/185 agreements for sewer adoption/closure/diversion works respectively; and
- s38/278 agreements for highways adoption/improvement works respectively.
We also have the technical knowledge and experience in this team to guide our clients through more niche infrastructure matters including build over agreements, highways licences and oversailing licences, where necessary.
Telecoms
As well as these core areas of work, this team is also well versed with the Electronic Communications Code 2017 (the Code) and regularly advises our clients in connection with their telecoms matters and data communication requirements.
Fifty years ago, the electricity, gas and water companies were rolling out their infrastructure across the country and paying landowners quite handsomely for their right to do so. We are now living in an era dominated by the internet and the demand for fibre optic upgrades and cellular network expansion has never been higher. A provider of data communications is often referred to as an Operator in accordance with the Code and they benefit from extensive statutory rights of which our clients as landowners ought to be aware. This area of work generally takes two forms: Telecoms Leases and Wayleave Agreements, both of which are considered Code Agreements. Telecoms Leases tend to be granted when an Operator wishes to install an electronic communications site at your property, usually on the roof, for the provision of cellular networks including 5G. Wayleave Agreements are used to install or upgrade broadband services and are used commonly these days to deal with the upgrade from copper to fibre optic connections which provide faster internet speeds. Our clients have noticed a sharp rise in their tenants’ demand for this upgrade and to assist our clients with the fibre optic rollout across their property portfolio, we have produced a bespoke Multiple Dwelling Unit Master Wayleave Agreement which can be used by our clients with any Operator to ensure the works are carried out safely and consistently across the board without the need for multiple agreements. We also advise on Single Dwelling Unit wayleaves, where an individual connection is required.
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020 7628 7576