First-ever land referencing standard gives projects certainty from the ground up

Before a single spade enters the ground on a major infrastructure project, someone must establish whose ground it is, who has rights over it, and how those people will be affected. On a new railway, road or energy network involving thousands of plots, changing designs and multiple legal interests, what sounds simple is anything but.

Land referencing is a specialist and growing discipline that connects people, property, rights and evidence to the decisions needed to plan, consent and build infrastructure. Until now, practitioners have lacked a published technical standard specific to their work. The Society of Land Referencers (SoLR) is working to change that.

Land referencers are often among the first project representatives engaging with affected communities. They investigate ownership and occupation, identify often-overlooked interests and help explain what a scheme might mean for individual landowners. Their findings inform design, consultation, environmental surveys, land acquisition and construction access.

That information is never static. A boundary may change, a property may be sold, or a design refinement may introduce a new access requirement.

A railway alignment moving only a few metres, for example, might bring a different field or access into the scheme. What appears to be a minor engineering change can mean identifying and engaging a new landowner, understanding how the land or business operates and reconsidering the rights the project needs.

Equally, a temporary construction compound may affect a landholding very differently from the permanent railway, road or utility it is there to build. Every change can affect who must be contacted, what rights are needed and what must appear in statutory documents. The challenge is keeping that information accurate, connected and usable throughout the asset’s life.

Developed by SoLR’s standards and ethics sub-committee, the first Land Referencing Standard establishes the fundamental principles for creating, managing, assuring and presenting this information.

Built around four interconnected datasets – land, rights, parties and requirements – it addresses their supporting evidence, geospatial information, outputs and governance. Instead of mandating a particular software platform or workflow, it defines what dependable land referencing should achieve, allowing organisations to show how their methods meet those expectations.

The standard is also jurisdictionally neutral. It does not replace legislation or professional judgement, nor does following it automatically establish statutory compliance. More detailed procedural and jurisdictional technical specifications are intended to follow.

An accompanying technical glossary provides a shared vocabulary for the profession and the many disciplines relying on its work.

Clients often understand their consenting obligations but struggle to specify exactly what land information they need, its quality or how it should be assured.

Different suppliers can interpret those requirements differently, allowing gaps to emerge late.

That might mean discovering, while preparing statutory documents, that an interest has been overlooked, the land required by the latest design is not reflected correctly, or the evidence behind an ownership record cannot readily be traced.

At that point, what began as a relatively small information issue can become a consenting or programme problem. Too often, these checks are left to project legal teams when they should have been considered much earlier through the instruction, planning and delivery of land referencing itself.

Land referencing rarely goes wrong publicly, but when it does, the consequences can be significant. A missed land interest, the wrong party being consulted or an access requirement identified too late can affect consultation, surveys, land acquisition, or construction itself.

Against the backdrop of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, and the UK’s ambitions for major transport, energy and water investment, land referencing must scale without sacrificing public confidence or technical rigour. SoLR’s first standard will evolve through practical use and feedback, with future work addressing the distinct legal frameworks across the UK and Ireland.

Simon Harth is a strategic development director for land at WSP and Mark Aanensen is a legislative compliance manager at law firm Winckworth Sherwood. Both are directors and co-founders of the Society of Land Referencers.