Radical revision of wayleave rates to stimulate rural fibre rollouts

National Wayleave Framework needs radical revision of wayleave rates to stimulate rural full fibre rollouts  

Why have wayleave rates for buried fibre gone up and not down since the 2017 Electronic Communications Code updated the Digital Economy Act? The legislation was designed to collapse the cost and delays.

For fibre network builders, like Wessex Internet Ltd, there is a much cheaper way to deliver fibre to the remoter properties and small rural villages and hamlets. Rather than the high price of ‘Street Works’ that involves digging up the roads and verges, choking the traffic; trenchless equipment can lay fibre across farmland and into back gardens at a fraction of the cost/time. To date Wessex Internet has laid 1300km of fibre, agreed wayleave free, with enlightened landowners and it continues to lay 40km per month.

To effectively install Full Fibre to the most difficult 20% of the country (F20), operators require no nonsense land access through a low-cost wayleave framework to maximise soft dig construction. To this end, the Government resisted the landowning lobby groups in updating the Electronic Communications Code with the intention of unlocking cheap access for telecoms operators to bridge the digital divide Digital Economy Bill was enacted in December 2017.

Unlike the previous code, the new code clearly states the 'market value' assessed for compensation may not consider the value of the right to telecommunications operators. The guiding principle being that the rate is set based solely on the value lost by the landowner. This has already allowed the Mobile Phone Mast owners to drive annual rents at mast sites from £5,000+ down as low as £500 in an area where the loss of value to the landowner is more obvious than is the case for buried fibre.

Nevertheless, in June 2018, BT/Openreach concluded a negotiation with CLA & NFU settling on rates greater than those agreed in 2012! It is estimated this deal to be worth an additional £40m to £50m to landowners in increased payments. What were BT/O thinking about?

How can £3.90 per metre for a permanent wayleave for buried ducts/fibre represent the loss of value to the landowner for having to put up with a small duct or armoured cable buried 1m under a field. We should align with electricity companies who offer £0.02p/m p.a. for their buried cables which would equate to maybe £0.30 per metre for a permanent fibre right.

Wessex Internet Vibratory Mole Plough lays fibre

Unlike many operators, WIL works with landowners and communities on a model that has yet to pay a wayleave for land access but still has landowners onside. I am a landowner myself and we cross others land in a way that respects the rights of landowners. At the same time, we make sure landowners see the benefit of full fibre to their properties and their surrounding communities, rather than seeing an operator as the next funding cheque. Even with the vast majority that come on board, there are always those that hold the CLA & NFU document up as the gold standard for compensation (particularly state owned and national institutions such as Forestry Commission, the National Trust and Duchy of Cornwall who should know better). With no real basis for the claim, or way a rural rollout can possibly support the cost, it ransoms projects and adds massive delays to critical rollouts; in the end communities are the main losers.

Trenchless laying showing minimal damage to land

Our industry needs to work together to fulfil the intentions of the 2017 Code and get wayleaves down to appropriate and affordable rates. Then we can roll out fibre to the remotest places quickly and at very much lower build costs providing a permanent deployment solution for Full Fibre. What’s more we can minimise the visual impact on our landscape by minimal use of poles and aerial cables.

The only way to do this is to collectively take the matter up with CLA & NFU for a voluntary agreement, failing that to be prepared to take a test case to Court against a landowner to establish the intentions of the ECC.

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