Vital church income at risk from mobile mast overhaul

CRUMBLING churches could lose thousands of pounds of vital income as Labour prepares to limit what they can make through leasing land to mobile phone companies.

- By Eleanor Burleigh

Financially constrained parishes can raise funds to maintain their historic buildings by striking rental agreements with telecoms firms to install masts on towers and spires.

But it is warned revenue could drop by around 90% under government changes. Reforms to the electronic communications code in 2017 effectively cut income by shifting from market-based rent to a lower-cost model that allowed masts to be built more quickly.

Labour now wants to extend the model to thousands more sites through the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act. Around 15,000 sites with pre-2017 agreements covered by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 may see their rents cut.