Land referencing  

Land referencing is an important process, ensuring everyone with a legal interest in land, in and around the areas being considered for the proposed reinforcement, has an opportunity to engage in the development of the project. We have identified parties who we believe may be affected by the Project based on Land Registry Data and we have appointed land agent, Ardent, to verify the publicly available information. This is to ensure that the information is up-to-date and to confirm the current occupation of the land. 

In the Development Consent Order (DCO) process, anyone with a legal interest in land is known as a Person with an Interest in Land (PIL). If you are identified as a PIL through early land referencing, we will contact you directly. This will include issue of a 'Land Interest Questionnaire' which asks you to validate existing known information, alongside confirming all other parties with an interest in your land, that would otherwise not be available from public registers such as the Land Registry. This will allow the Project team to ensure that all those parties potentially affected by the proposals are included in consultation correspondence and have an opportunity to help shape the proposals.

Access for surveys  

We must develop our proposals with the right information. Over the coming months, we will carry out environmental and other surveys. These surveys will help better understand the local environment and potential effects of our project. This will also help inform our further thoughts about routeing and siting and aiding the development of detailed proposals for during and after Stage 2 consultation in early 2026. The findings of these surveys will be included as part of our application to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) for development consent. 

We are requesting permission from the relevant landowners or occupiers to access private land within the route corridor to carry out some surveys. We hope that we can agree access to land voluntarily. Allowing National Grid access to land does not stop anyone with a legal interest in the land making representations about the project at any time and allowing access for surveys does not affect any rights to comment in any form. 

We always seek to agree voluntary survey access and our land agents will make every effort to do so. However, where voluntary access cannot be agreed, we will consider whether to use the relevant legal powers to undertake the necessary surveys.

View our Construction Best Practice For Overhead Line Installation Guide which sets out National Grid’s approach to good practice when we carry out work to install, maintain and operate equipment on, over, in or under land and what landowners/occupiers can expect.