Statutory Instrument 2026/569 makes a narrow but important procedural change for telecoms property disputes in England and Wales. From 30 July 2026, certain proceedings under Part 2 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 will no longer be determined by the courts. Instead, the relevant forum will be the First-tier Tribunal and, where applicable, the Upper Tribunal. In plain English, the Regulations move a defined class of business tenancy cases out of the ordinary court route and into the tribunal system. The shift is limited to tenancies whose primary purpose is to confer code rights, and to section 34B compensation claims connected with the exercise of those rights. (legislation.gov.uk)
The legal basis comes from section 65 of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022. The Explanatory Notes to that Act say the new subsections inserted into section 63 of the 1954 Act allow the Secretary of State to make regulations so that Part 2 cases involving subsisting agreements granting code rights can be heard in the First-tier Tribunal or the Upper Tribunal. The stated policy aim was to allow disputes in England and Wales relating to code rights to fall within the same court and tribunal structure. (legislation.gov.uk) That wider policy direction was visible before this instrument was made. In its 7 May 2025 technical consultation on commencing sections 61 to 64 of the 2022 Act, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said separate work under section 65 would transfer proceedings under the 1954 Act from the county court to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber). (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
The cases covered are not every 1954 Act renewal dispute. They are proceedings under Part 2 where the tenancy is a subsisting agreement and its primary purpose is to confer code rights, together with proceedings under section 34B of the 1954 Act. Section 34B itself was inserted by the 2022 Act to mirror compensation provisions in the Electronic Communications Code, so that site providers under renewed 1954 Act agreements can access comparable compensation rights. (legislation.gov.uk) For practitioners, that means the new forum rule is tied to the telecoms-specific branch of the business tenancy regime rather than to ordinary commercial lease renewals. The Regulations therefore sit inside a specialist legal track: disputes about telecoms apparatus, renewal terms and compensation will now be dealt with closer to the existing code-rights framework. (legislation.gov.uk)
The practical effect is straightforward. From 30 July, references in Part 2 of the 1954 Act to the court are to be read, for these defined cases, as references to the tribunal system. The underlying renewal and compensation framework remains in the 1954 Act and the 2022 Act changes that sit behind it; what changes here is the decision-maker. That matters because forum choice affects case handling, representation and timing. Parties issuing new claims after commencement will need to check jurisdiction at the outset, while advisers who usually work through the County Court route will need to map tribunal procedure instead. Many code disputes were already within the tribunal structure under the Electronic Communications Code (Jurisdiction) Regulations 2017, which gave the Upper Tribunal jurisdiction in England and Wales and allowed transfer to the First-tier Tribunal in some England cases. (legislation.gov.uk)
The Regulations also include a clear transitional rule. Proceedings under Part 2 of the 1954 Act that were started before 30 July 2026 stay with the court and continue as if the new Regulations had not been made. That avoids mid-case transfers and limits the scope for argument over forum in live litigation. A further consequential amendment updates the High Court and County Courts Jurisdiction Order 1991 so that court jurisdiction no longer covers the category of proceedings moved by regulations under section 63(2A) of the 1954 Act. For litigation teams, that is the clause that closes the old route for new cases once commencement has passed. (legislation.gov.uk)
For telecoms operators, landlords, surveyors and property litigators, the main point is operational. A claim issued on 29 July 2026 follows the existing court route. A claim issued on 30 July 2026 or later, if it falls within these telecoms tenancy provisions, should be prepared for the tribunal route instead. The measure is modest on its face, but it completes a piece of unfinished implementation from the 2022 Act. Official material around that Act had already framed section 65 as a means of bringing England and Wales code-rights disputes into a more unified specialist structure, and the 2025 consultation described the transfer to the First-tier Tribunal as separate implementation work running alongside the broader renewals changes. For professionals working in this area, SI 2026/569 is therefore less about new rights than about where those rights will now be argued. (legislation.gov.uk)