By Alex Lane , Head of Legal at Aurora Utilities Limited
When people think of the energy transition, they picture solar panels, wind farms, and fleets of electric vehicles (EVs). But hidden in plain sight, beneath our feet and across our landscapes, is one of the most complex and overlooked aspects of delivering net zero infrastructure: land rights.
At Aurora, we specialise in connecting key infrastructure to the grid to support the low-carbon economy; such as EV networks, data centres, renewable energy infrastructure, and future-facing substations. Yet, despite the technology being ready and investor appetite stronger than ever, one of our most consistent challenges remains: securing timely, flexible, and legally robust land agreements.
It’s a challenge that cuts across the UK’s fragmented landownership landscape, and one that deserves much more attention in national policy and industry debate.
The hidden complexity behind green connections
As Head of Legal at Aurora, myself and my team work closely with landowners, third-party stakeholders, and our internal project teams to navigate the multi-faceted terrain of access rights, substation siting, easements, and lease structures. While the goal is straightforward; getting power from A to B in the most efficient, commercially viable way possible, the reality is anything but.
Each landowner has distinct requirements, priorities, and levels of legal literacy. At one end of the spectrum, we deal with major corporates; think global logistics operators with heightened security protocols, or tech companies protecting data integrity. At the other, we may work with colleges and local authorities concerned with safeguarding and access control.
Then, there are the sovereign-like entities of infrastructure; Network Rail, Canal and River Trusts, and various statutory undertakers, each with legacy procedures, statutory responsibilities, and unique planning constraints.
The result? A complex, patchwork system where negotiation is more art than science.
Communication breakdown: A costly barrier
One of the most underestimated barriers to faster project completions is a breakdown in communication between landowners and infrastructure developers. It’s not uncommon to see months lost due to clause-by-clause negotiations over standard lease terms. Often, these disputes are rooted in misunderstanding or misaligned priorities. For instance, a landowner might push back on 24/7 site access due to perceived security risks, when in reality, such access is a regulatory requirement for equipment maintenance and fault response.
Sometimes solicitors on both sides are negotiating from a position of fear; of liability, of precedent, of reputational risk, rather than shared purpose. The result is time lost, trust frayed, and net zero targets further delayed.
According to the National Infrastructure Commission, delays to the delivery of energy infrastructure could cost the UK economy £118 billion by 2050 if not addressed. Land rights are a key part of that risk; but also, crucially, an opportunity.
The case for in-house legal expertise
Aurora made a strategic decision early on: to invest in a specialist in-house legal team, a move which makes Aurora stand out in the IDNO market, and which was a huge draw for me when I joined the company in June.
My previous legal experience demonstrated to me just how essential in-house legal capability is, not only for responsiveness but for credibility. In commercial negotiations, having your legal decision-makers in the room, rather than waiting days for external counsel to reply, can make or break a deal.
Having a legally literate professional within the business is invaluable for energy projects involving land rights. Someone who can rapidly grasp complex documentation, identify the risks it is designed to address, and translate those into practical business implications adds real strategic value. Drawing on experience representing both landowners and developers, we can for example propose solutions that balance interests and foster agreements acceptable to all parties.
And from a client perspective, when pitching to corporates or government frameworks, the presence (or absence) of an internal legal team is often the deciding factor.
Beyond speed, in-house lawyers build institutional memory. They spot recurring patterns across projects, streamline negotiations, and most importantly, develop solutions that balance legal robustness with commercial agility. In a sector driven by deadlines, regulatory compliance, and investor expectations, this is not a luxury; it’s a necessity.
Creating the blueprint
When we established Aurora’s legal team, there was no blueprint. Unlike longstanding utilities with entrenched processes, we had the opportunity, and the challenge, of building our frameworks from scratch. That meant developing our own precedent documents, standardising internal workflows, and creating knowledge-sharing protocols between legal, commercial, and technical teams. We have gone a step further at Aurora and embraced digitisation and automation.
In today’s fast-paced business environment, paper-based processes slow everything down. Digitising documents – converting contracts, forms, and client records into secure electronic formats – removes those bottlenecks. Digital documents can be searched, shared, and updated instantly, ensuring that teams and clients have access to the latest information wherever they are.
Automation takes this a step further. By using document-management systems and workflow automation, routine tasks such as approvals, notifications, and data entry happen automatically. This reduces human error, cuts turnaround times, and frees staff to focus on higher-value work. This results in vital efficiency gains during lands rights negotiations.
It also meant adapting rapidly to new types of land environments. For example, installing substations at academic institutions such as schools or colleges, raises safeguarding concerns. In those cases, engineers may need to undergo background checks, such as a criminal background checks and a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, and/or be accompanied at all times by an official representative of the institute. Alternatively, we may need to organise off-site substation placement. Each solution must be integrated legally and practically into the delivery timeline.
At police stations, high-security logistics sites and data centres, access is further restricted. In one project, we had to accommodate a client’s requirement for 24-hour access without compromising their security codes; highlighting the commercial balancing act required. These challenges need a workaround, and we asked the questions and thought outside the box; can we build it on neighbouring land? Can we create access for engineers which doesn’t mean accessing the full site? These considerations need to be brought to the fore quickly during the legal negotiations, and all parties need to be comfortable with the solution.
Even something as seemingly minor as a cable route can become a negotiation minefield. In some cases, we’ve redesigned infrastructure to avoid third-party landowners entirely, working collaboratively with our ICP partners to adapt route planning before legal conflicts emerge.
These creative legal-engineering partnerships are crucial to accelerating infrastructure delivery without compromising stakeholder requirements.
A patchwork of legal jurisdictions
The United Kingdom is made up of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and Aurora has a license to work across them all. Different legal jurisdictions add complexity. In Scotland, for instance, it’s the seller who commissions land searches, flipping the process familiar to English solicitors. Northern Ireland, by contrast, simply doesn’t recognise long-term leases in the same way, requiring licence agreements that often fall short of an IDNO’s operational needs.
This adds another layer of complexity, especially when working with pan-UK clients. Our solution? Treat each jurisdiction as a unique legal ecosystem and tailor our approach accordingly; we can work with multiple regional client teams for a single company whose operations span across borders. We also maintain tailored relationships with regional solicitors. It could be seen as an operational headache, but we see it as a strategic advantage when executed well.
Our legal team has acquired extensive experience coordinating multiple firms across different jurisdictions, ensuring a consistent approach and seamless client experience. This level of oversight is a distinct advantage of an in-house team, providing value that external counsel alone cannot easily match.
Toward a more collaborative future
We need a national conversation on land rights that reflects the realities of modern infrastructure delivery. The government’s latest infrastructure upgrade strategy rightly prioritises grid reform and project acceleration, but without complementary reform in land rights processes, those ambitions will be hard to realise.
Greater standardisation of lease frameworks, more transparent expectations from statutory bodies, and better digital access to land registry and planning data could go a long way. According to the Energy Networks Association, faster connections could save £1.5 billion per year in system costs; money that could be reinvested in resilience, innovation, and consumer affordability.
Legal reform alone however won’t fix this. What we need is a cultural shift, from adversarial negotiation to collaborative problem-solving. In-house legal teams, embedded within infrastructure providers, are uniquely placed to lead that shift. That is because we don’t just interpret the law, we help shape the way projects get delivered.
At Aurora, we believe the land rights bottleneck is not a permanent roadblock. It’s a solvable challenge, and one that, when addressed with creativity, pragmatism and trust, can unlock the clean infrastructure our future depends on.
