Farm data revolution relies on greater collaboration

The data revolution could transform UK agriculture, but fundamental issues remain. That was the key takeaway from speakers and delegates at the recent Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ Telecoms conference.

Landowners and telecoms operators need to draw a line in the sand and focus on the benefits of greater digital connectivity to the UK, according to Belinda Fawcett, director of property and estates at Cornerstone, a mobile and digital infrastructure provider.

See also: Farmland sites on radars of data centre developers

“We’ve wasted years already with this ridiculous fighting over rental levels,” she told delegates. “This is no longer just a connectivity question. It’s a question of national productivity, economic growth, and resilience. If the UK gets this right, the digital economy could contribute around £230bn to GDP.”

Smart agriculture would be a key outcome, Belinda added. “Around 95% of farmers still don’t have reliable mobile coverage across their land.”

However, there is a real mismatch between operators and site providers in terms of outlook, said Laura West, a barrister and director at law firm Fieldfisher.

“Operators believe everyone in the sector should put their time and resources into improving and expanding the network and do deals driven by that philosophy,” she said.

“But most site providers, including farmers, simply want to get on with their business as usual.

They find that hosting telecoms apparatus is an unwelcome distraction that costs staff time and often money due to poor levels of compensation and low levels of rent.”

Rebecca Collins, a technical and policy adviser at the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers, confirmed: “Unfortunately, we do still see some protracted negotiations where one or both sides have become intransigent.”

Disputes

The nature of those disputes appeared to be evolving since the introduction of the revised Electronic Communications Code (ECC) in 2017, said Rebecca, who is also a member of the National Connectivity Alliance, which brings together stakeholders to help facilitate the delivery of world-class connectivity across the UK.

“The new code saw a significant increase in litigation,” she said. “It significantly disrupted the market, seeing an alternative valuation approach with the result of reductions in rents.

“Unsurprisingly, many of the earliest disputes tended to be about the amount of rent, but over the past 18 months or so, we’ve seen fewer disputes focus on rent with tribunal decisions providing guidance that has informed the market.”

Disputes were now more likely to be around other terms of the agreement, she said, such as mitigating the impact of hosting equipment on a landlord’s farming or rural business operations, as well as having some protection if they wanted to change the use of their property and perhaps required a mast to be relocated.

Data centre opportunities

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A more networked UK and a move away from giant data centres with a growing focus on data sovereignty was an opportunity for farms and estates, said conference speaker Graeme Baker.

“The industry has woken up to the fact that it’s not a safe environment to have your data in a foreign data centre,” said Graeme, the chief operating officer of Carabiner Networks, a one-stop service that works with landowners to create data-centre packages for investors and operators.

“We have different rules in the UK; we’re very aligned with the EU, where you own your data. If you’re on an American unit, the data centre owns your data. If you’re in China, the government owns your data. So, there’s a big influx of money to build sovereign data centres in the UK,” he explained.

In terms of scale, developers were looking at regional centres, rather than huge centralised ones. “The regional model is much easier. It’s easier to consume. It’s easier to build, and it puts the data where it’s needed a lot of the time as well.”

Chip development also meant much more processing power could be fitted into a smaller space, said Graeme. “A modular data-centre unit is roughly the size of a shipping container, so it could easily fit inside a barn.”

Network security

There could also be the opportunity to create networks of data centres across different farms, he added.

“It’s good for security. If one centre is compromised or hacked, you can switch over to another one.”

Access to power and an enterprise-grade fibre connection were key requirements, he said, but there was the opportunity to integrate on-farm renewable energy and battery storage schemes with a data centre.

Using the heat generated by the data centre for a farming enterprise, or even local housing, was another opportunity that could help with a planning application, noted Graeme.

Although operators or investors often bought sites, they would also consider long-term rental agreements, as long as the contract matched the life span of the equipment.

Professional advice

Rebecca said it was essential that a landowner or occupier got the right professional advice from someone with knowledge and understanding of the ECC.

“It is a very complicated area of law, with lots of potential hidden traps that might not be obvious at first glance of a draft agreement.

“For example, a landlord presented with an agreement for a new mast for 10 years might assume that the equipment could be removed after the end of that 10-year period. In reality, operators are afforded powers that could see the mast remain on the land long after the end date in the agreement.”

When negotiating with operators, evidence was important, said Laura.

“Farmers need to be assiduous in putting together a paper trail that demonstrates the actual level of their costs: for example, logs that show the dates and times of staff attendance to facilitate access over a decent period and the resulting cost to the business,” she said.

“Communication is key, especially when things go wrong. It is incumbent on farmers to ensure that operators have sufficient information to see the site provider’s side when there are issues.”