Land disposal

Condition 7 (Land disposal) of Network Rail’s network licence ensures that land it owns which may be critical to the operation or future development of the railways remains available to Network Rail by requiring our consent to disposals. Network Rail’s obligations are set out in the document Land Disposal by Network Rail: The regulatory arrangements, March 2008, available in related documents.

On this page

Land disposal – the regulatory arrangements

We reviewed the regulatory arrangements for dealing with Network Rail’s land disposals and consulted on our proposals in November 2007. Our proposals to increase Network Rail’s role and responsibility in the approval process and make it more efficient and effective were adopted and implemented with effect from 1 April 2008.

Details of the review and the current arrangements can be found in the related links below,

Network Rail's role in land disposal

Network Rail is now required to provide evidence and details of its stakeholder consultations in its applications to dispose of land. For every submission we expect Network Rail to consult the stakeholders set out below, depending on the geographical location of the proposed disposal. It is expected that passenger representative organisations will represent the overall comments or views of individuals using the railways when giving their views to Network Rail.

Parties that must be consulted:

  • Department for Transport / Transport Scotland / Scottish Council for Development & Industry / Welsh Assembly Government
  • Association of Train Operating Companies
  • Rail Freight Group and Freight Transport Association
  • Train operating companies (passenger and freight)
  • Local authorities
  • Passenger Transport Authorities and Passenger Transport Executives
  • Transport for London
  • Port and airport authorities
  • British Transport Police
  • Passenger Focus / London TravelWatch

We will issue a decision, either granting or refusing consent within three months of the receipt of the application.

Latest land disposals

Details of current land disposal cases and previous decisions are available from our current land disposal cases page.

Last updated 19 August 2009

Related documents