Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an estimate of the number of local authorities that have had reduced rental income from telecommunications apparatus following renegotiations with (a) network and (b) infrastructure providers after the Electronic Communications Code was reformed in 2017; and if she will make a statement.

The reforms made to the Code in 2017 were intended to make it cheaper and easier for digital infrastructure to be deployed, maintained and upgraded. These reforms recognised the increasing importance of digital communications services to UK consumers and businesses, and to the wider economy.

The Government recognised that the reforms would mean landowners receiving lower payments for allowing their land or buildings to be used than had previously been the case. However, these changes were only introduced following an extensive period of consultation and research, and were considered necessary to reduce operator costs and encourage the industry investment required for the UK to get the digital communications infrastructure it needs.

The 2017 reforms did not retrospectively alter the terms of agreements that had been completed before the 2017 reforms came into force. However, once a Code agreement expires, it is open to either the operator or the site provider to seek a renewal of that agreement and negotiate new terms.

Most Code agreements are agreed on a consensual basis and often include a confidentiality clause, which means that information about its financial terms agreed cannot be shared with others or made publicly available, except in limited circumstances or with the other party’s permission. It is therefore not possible to estimate the number of local authorities which may have seen a reduction in rent following the expiry and renegotiation of Code agreements on their property since 2017.