{"id":633158,"date":"2025-12-15T03:32:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T03:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/633158\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T03:32:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T03:32:17","slug":"uk-plans-curb-on-freeholders-blocking-broadband-cabling-in-flats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/633158\/","title":{"rendered":"UK plans curb on freeholders blocking broadband cabling in flats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

Flat owners will find it easier to upgrade their broadband under UK government plans to limit the ability of freeholders to block cabling work, as ministers try to address one of the final hurdles to Britain\u2019s full-fibre rollout.<\/p>\n

The proposals set out on Monday would mean requests from leaseholders to allow broadband cabling work could not be \u201cunreasonably refused\u201d by building owners, who can currently cite concerns over disruption to stop upgrades.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s largest broadband<\/a> network, BT\u2019s Openreach, has more than 980,000 premises that are unable to be upgraded from copper to fibre due to freeholder issues, according to a person familiar with the matter. <\/p>\n

Telecoms minister Baroness Liz Lloyd told the Financial Times that the plans were designed to give industry the support to \u201cget on with the job of building the infrastructure our cities, towns and remote areas need\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese measures would unlock rollout to trickier premises, reduce friction in accessing buildings for cabling, and give operators the confidence needed to invest and prioritise rolling out to properties that still require fast broadband access,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Flat-owning leaseholders would have the right to ask for a gigabit-capable broadband connection \u2014 equivalent to 1 gigabit per second in download speed \u2014 from their freeholder, who would have limited powers to reject such requests.<\/p>\n

Freeholders can at present block or ignore requests from leaseholders for the upgraded technology \u2014 which is crucial for working at home and using multiple devices simultaneously \u2014 for reasons such as administrative burden. <\/p>\n

The measures would apply specifically to leaseholders, with renters still required to request any upgrade from their landlord, who would subsequently have to ask the building owner on their behalf.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s consultation envisages leaseholders continuing to pay for the costs of broadband upgrade work through service charges passed down from freeholders. The consultation will run until February 16 2026.<\/p>\n

James Robinson, senior analyst at Assembly Research, said he was \u201chesitant\u201d to say the proposals were \u201can early Christmas present from the government to industry\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter saying in the [June 2025] Infrastructure Strategy that it would bring forward proposals \u2018as soon as possible\u2019, a six-month wait for the consultation doesn\u2019t exactly represent pace of action on an issue long considered a barrier in need of busting,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt would also be several months more before leaseholders see the benefit,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

About 87 per cent of UK homes have access to gigabit-capable broadband, according to the telecoms regulator Ofcom. The government has set a target of achieving 99 per cent gigabit-capable broadband coverage by 2032. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-633158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115721479453094022","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}