Rural broadband rollout: fast, affordable and reliable connections with updated wayleave agreement
The slow speed at which broadband is rolled out to rural areas has been an area of concern for sometime, especially since strong broadband connectivity is becoming more and more vital for farmers and rural business owners.
After more than a year of hard work, a revised national Rural Communications Agreement has been populated by the CLA, the membership organisation for owners of land, property and business in rural England and the NFU, the representation body for agriculture and horticulture in England and Wales. Representing a large part of rural businesses, the CLA and the NFU have been on the lookout for a smoother rollout of broadband to the countryside so farmers and agricultural business are not left behind.
NFU Vice President Stuart Roberts says, "Fast rural broadband is essential for our forward-thinking and dynamic farming industry, especially as we approach exiting the European Union.”
The revised agreement adopts a crucial update to the wayleave framework, the right of way provided by landowners for the purpose of infrastructure development in exchange for payment, giving greater accessibility to rural areas for broadband and connectivity while also ensuring fairness to landowners.
By providing advisory payment rates for the installation of new digital infrastructure on private land between landowners and broadband network companies, the agreement aims to reduce the time and cost of negotiating individual wayleaves and thereby increasing the speed of broadband rollout in the countryside.
CLA Deputy President Mark Bridgeman remarks, “But there is more work to do: the CLA will keep the pressure on broadband providers to deliver the fast, affordable and reliable connections that the countryside needs, and we will hold Government to their promise of a Universal Service Obligation of 10Mbps by 2020.”
It is hoped the updated agreement will deliver broadband to rural areas which currently have poor, unreliable or non-existent broadband connections without causing unfairness to landowners.
