6.5. Land ownership considerations

To date, local government has been responsible for installing the majority of public charging infrastructure in Scotland. Public chargepoints have predominantly been located on public land operated by local authorities. This approach to public chargepoint provision avoids the legal and logistical barriers often experienced when trying to install public chargepoints on private land. As the amount of public land available for public charging infrastructure reduces, organisations are now investigating opportunities to site public charging infrastructure on private land.

The process of identifying and liaising with landowners can be challenging. This can be a particular issue in remote areas, as it can take a long time to establish who the landowner is.

A key learning from the FASTER project has been that arranging legal agreements and leases can take a significant amount of time. This stage in the development process can therefore be quite resource intensive.

As the public charging infrastructure landscape progresses more towards public and private sector collaboration, accumulated experience should make the process of arranging legal agreements easier. Further detail on collaborative approaches to public charging infrastructure is outlined in the funding your chargepoints section of the guidance.

Wayleaves are another factor that need to be considered in relation to land ownership. In the context of electrical networks, a wayleave is a legal agreement between an equipment owner and a landowner that grants permission for the equipment owner to place their property on private land. You can read more about wayleaves on the UK power networks website. 

For chargepoint developers, this may take the form of a wayleave being needed for any civil work carried out on private land to facilitate a chargepoint connection. For local authorities installing charging infrastructure, a wayleave is often needed for cabling that needs to run over private land.