New Report Claims Small Changes Can Deliver Big 5G Mobile Boost for England

A new report from The YIMBY Initiative (TYI), which describes itself as a cross-party UK research led think-tank, has today argued that “small changes” to existing legislation and frameworks could reform the planning system just enough to help boost the deployment and coverage of 5G based mobile broadband networks.

The report – ‘Small Changes, Big Rewards‘, which was commissioned by industry trade body Mobile UK (i.e. somewhat done with the vested interests of mobile operators in mind), warns that 4G related planning changes ultimately “came too late in the rollout cycle to have meaningful impact“.

Suffice to say, they don’t want the UK government to make the same mistake with 5G, lest the deployment ends up being “slower and its benefits harder to realise before the next election“. The new report thus argues that minor, pragmatic updates to England’s planning rules could be the “missing link” in delivering high-speed 5G connectivity.

This, they claim, is reflected by the fact that 95% of the mobile network build programme in the short to medium term involves upgrading existing infrastructure, not erecting new masts. Some of this should have been tackled by full implementation of the recent Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act (PSTI), which makes it easier for broadband and mobile operators to upgrade, share and deploy new infrastructure. But that doesn’t cover everything and is arriving quite late in the process.

Key Claims of the Report:

➤ Closing the Social Divide: While 4G arrived too late for many, 5G offers a “5:1 multiplier” for local economies. Delaying these reforms risks leaving rural and working-class communities in a “digital slow lane” for another decade.

➤ Protecting Public Resources: Currently, 95% of 5G rollout involves minor upgrades to existing sites. Forcing these through the full planning process clogs up local councils, diverting overstretched planners away from the Government’s #1 priority: delivering 1.5 million social and affordable homes.

➤ The “Notice to Quit” Crisis: Critical national infrastructure is currently vulnerable to eviction on just 18 months’ notice. We are calling for a 36-month window to ensure connectivity in hospitals and schools isn’t cut off by private land redevelopment.

➤ International Equity: We look at how Germany and Finland have already prioritised digital access as an “overriding public interest.” The UK is currently falling behind, threatening our ability to deliver “digital-first” public services.

➤ A Win for the Government’s Mission: These changes require no new primary legislation or public funding—just simple updates to secondary legislation that would allow the mobile industry to self-fund the national upgrade the country needs.

The move comes after the government launched their 10-Year UK Infrastructure Strategy (10YIS) in June 2025, which didn’t set out too many changes for mobile connectivity but did signal a change by pledging to “remove barriers to digital infrastructure deployment“.

The 10YIS was then followed by a new call for input to identify whether further planning reforms were needed to help boost national broadband and mobile connectivity (here), which itself was followed in February 2026 by the somewhat complementary Mobile Market Review (MMR).

Suffice to say that change is coming and there’s currently a lot of lobbying taking place by mobile operators to ensure the government swings in their direction. This helps to explain why the report also highlights independent estimates, which put the cumulative value of a full 5G rollout at between £41bn and £230bn by 2035.

However, it’s always wise to take such forecasts with a big pinch of salt, not least because trying to accurately gauge the economic impact of deploying faster mobile or broadband networks is notoriously difficult. Part of this stems from the fact that most users won’t be starting from a point of having zero data connectivity, and we’re all very different in our consumption requirements.

Sean Woodcock MP, Member of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, said:

“As a rural MP, I know the value of connectivity, but the planning system is holding Britain back. I am pleased to support these modest proposals to keep my constituents connected, unlock the potential of small businesses across the country, and save local authorities money.”

Maxwell Marlow, Director of Research at TYI, said:

“The UK has a major opportunity to accelerate 5G deployment through targeted planning reforms that require no new public spending and minimal parliamentary time. This research shows that we can maintain the integrity of the planning system while freeing up local authority resources and helping the UK to remain competitive.”

The report goes on to highlight how specific tweaks to the ‘Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015’, the ‘Town & Country Planning Act 1990’ and the ‘National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)’ could bring about the desired changes.

Some of the mooted changes, other than those mentioned earlier, include reducing restrictions on rooftop deployments in protected areas, fewer limits on mast alterations, the ability to upgrade masts to 30 metres (height) on unprotected land (or 25m on protected land/non-highway) without prior approval and softening requirements to camouflage infrastructure etc.

Mobile operators have of course never been shy about producing their own wish lists to support planning reform and network deployments (here, here, here, here and here). In fact not a week seems to go by without a new one cropping up, only to echo what the previous ones said, but that’s only one side of the story.

The views of landowners and the electorate don’t always align with what mobile operators desire and such groups can be quite vocal in their objections to the deployment of new infrastructure, including upgrades to existing sites. The concerns in this area often stem from complaints about the visual impact of new sites to complex disputes over rental payments for land access.

In terms of the latter, landowners have seen rents for placing telecoms infrastructure on their land slashed in recent years (here), which has brought them more into line with other utility services. But in response many disputes have erupted, and some landowners have even been withdrawing their consent, often supported by groups with their own vested interests in this area, such as AP Wireless.

The irony is that those who complain about such things are often also some of the same people who may, in the future, remark that their local mobile signals are of a poor quality. As ever, the big difficulty is in finding the right balance between all of these different views / interests. In any case, whatever the government ultimately decide, it tends to take 1-2 years before any changes become law and by then we’ll already be looking more toward 6G, as well as the next general election.