Access and Ransom Strips: Why the Way in Decides What Land Is Worth

Planning permission for houses needs a way for cars, bin lorries and emergency vehicles to get in and out safely. The council's highways officers will comment on every housing application, and a site that cannot show a safe access will struggle to get permission.

Access is also a legal question. Even if a junction could be built, you need the right to build it and to use it. That means either owning the land all the way to the public road, or having a legal right over the land in between that is wide enough for what you want to do.

Many fields that look as if they front a road do not quite reach it. A verge, a ditch, a hedge or a thin strip left over from an old sale can sit between the field and the road. If someone else owns it, they may hold the key to the site.

An adopted highway is a road that the highway authority, usually the county council or unitary council, maintains at public expense. The Highways Act 1980 requires every highway authority to keep a list of the streets in its area that are maintainable at public expense, and you can ask to see it.

A private road is one the council does not maintain. It might be a farm track, an unadopted lane or an estate road that was never handed over. The public may or may not have rights over it. Being able to walk or drive along a private road today does not mean you have a legal right to use it for a new housing estate.

New estate roads built by a housebuilder are often later adopted by the council under an agreement made under section 38 of the Highways Act 1980. Works to the existing public road, such as a new junction, are usually carried out under a section 278 agreement. You do not need the detail, but you will hear both numbers.

A visibility splay is the triangle of land at a junction that must be kept clear so drivers pulling out can see traffic coming, and traffic can see them. It is described by two measurements.

• The X distance is how far back from the edge of the road the driver sits. Local highway design guides commonly use 2.4 metres for an ordinary access.
• The Y distance is how far along the road the driver must be able to see in each direction. It depends on how fast traffic actually travels, so a lane where cars do 30mph needs far less than a fast rural road.

Anything inside the splay above a low height, such as a hedge, wall, tree or bank, usually has to be removed and kept clear permanently. That is where problems start. The splay must fall on land that is either public highway or under the applicant's control. If it crosses a neighbour's hedge or front garden, the neighbour's land has become part of your access, and they are in a position to negotiate.

A ransom strip is a piece of land, sometimes only a few centimetres wide, that sits between a development site and the road or services it needs, and belongs to someone else. Because the site cannot be developed without it, its owner can ask for far more than the strip is worth on its own.

Some ransom strips are accidents: a boundary drawn in the wrong place in an old sale, or a verge nobody thought about. Some are deliberate. A landowner selling part of a field may keep a strip along the road so that any future development has to come back to them. That is a recognised way of protecting a future share of value, alongside the overage arrangements we explain in a separate guide.

Ransom strips are not only about roads. Land needed for a sewer connection, a drainage outfall or a visibility splay can give its owner the same leverage.

Anyone who deals with ransom strips will hear about one-third. The figure comes from Stokes v Cambridge Corporation, a 1961 Lands Tribunal case about compensation when the council compulsorily bought farmland on the edge of Cambridge. Industrial development of that land needed access over a strip the council itself owned.

The Tribunal had to decide what a willing buyer would have paid the owner of the strip. It said half the increase in value was too much, and settled on one-third, in part because the strip owner would not be contributing to the cost of building the road, and would benefit from the development in other ways. The developer's profit and costs were taken off before the one-third was applied.

Why One-Third Is Not a Rule

Valuers and courts have repeatedly said that Stokes was decided on its own facts. Government guidance on compensation for ransom land says the correct starting point would be 50%, adjusted for the bargaining strength of each side. Other Lands Tribunal cases show the range:

The lesson is simple. A strip that is the only possible way in is worth more. A strip that a developer could work around, even at some cost, is worth much less.

In practice, most ransom strips are sold or released by negotiation, not by a tribunal. Both sides start from the same question: how much more is the development site worth with the strip than without it? That increase is the pot. The argument is over how it is shared.

Things that move the figure include:

• Alternatives. Can the developer reach the road another way, even if it means fewer houses or a longer road?
• Planning status. A strip serving a site with permission is worth more than one serving a site that may never get it. Deals before permission often use a payment on grant, rather than a fixed sum now.
• Who pays for the works. If the strip owner is not paying anything towards the road, that supports a lower share, as in Stokes.
• Other land. If the strip owner will benefit from the development, for example through access to their own land, that can reduce the share.
• Compulsory purchase. Councils can in some circumstances acquire land compulsorily for development. It is slow and uncommon for small sites, but its existence limits how far a strip owner can push.

Payments can be structured as a lump sum, a sum per house, or a share of the uplift paid when planning is granted. A price per house ties the payment to what is actually built.

An easement is a legal right over someone else's land, such as a right of way along a track. Many farms have them. The question for development is whether an existing right is wide enough to serve houses.

Read the Words of the Grant

A right granted in a deed is limited by its wording. A right "for agricultural purposes" or "to the farmhouse" will not cover a housing estate. A right "for all purposes" is much better, but may still be limited in other ways, such as its width.

Rights Gained by Long Use

A right acquired by long use, known as a prescriptive right, is generally limited to the kind of use that created it. Twenty years of tractors does not usually give a right to serve forty homes.

Excessive Use

Even a wide right can be exceeded. The Court of Appeal in McAdams Homes v Robinson (2004) set out a two-part test: whether the development is a radical change in the character or identity of the land, not just more intensive use, and whether it would substantially increase the burden on the land the right crosses. If both are true, the right may not be usable for the new development. The answer depends on the facts, and it is a common source of dispute.

If an existing right is not enough, the solution is usually to negotiate a new, wider right with the owner, which brings you back to ransom value.

Sometimes the landowner is the one holding the strip: a verge, a lane or a field corner that a neighbouring site needs. That can be valuable, but it is worth being realistic.

• Confirm with a solicitor that you actually own the strip, and that it is not already public highway.
• Ask a transport consultant or planner whether the developer has another route, even a worse one.
• Find out how far the neighbouring site is through planning. A strip is worth little to a site that never gets permission.
• Consider taking payment when planning is granted, or per house built, rather than insisting on a large sum up front.
• Keep the strip out of any sale of your adjoining land unless you mean to sell it, and keep evidence of ownership.
• Take tax advice. A large payment for a strip or a right of way is usually a capital disposal.

Asking too much can backfire. Developers redesign schemes to avoid strips, and a deal at a fair share is worth more than a strip nobody needs.

Before anyone assumes a site has access, check exactly where the public highway ends and private land begins. HM Land Registry title plans show general boundaries only, so they are not reliable for a strip a metre wide.

1. Ask for a highway boundary or highway extent search. Most highway authorities offer one for a fee. For example, Surrey County Council charged £35 for up to 50 metres of frontage at the time of writing (September 2026). Charges vary by council.
2. Check the list of streets. This shows which roads are maintained at public expense.
3. Compare with your title plan and a measured survey. A topographical survey shows the hedge lines, verges and ditches on the ground.
4. Look at the verge. There is an old legal presumption that a highway extends across the whole width between the hedges or fences on either side, which often brings the verge into the highway. It can be displaced by evidence, so do not rely on it without checking.
5. Get a solicitor to review any gaps. If there is unregistered land or an unexplained strip between your land and the highway, find out who owns it before planning work starts.

Owning the land under a verge and the verge being highway are separate questions. You can own the soil under a verge while the public has a right to pass over it. What matters for access is that the highway reaches your boundary.

Access is one of the first things we look at when we review a site, because a problem found early costs little to solve and a problem found late can end a scheme. We pay for the transport and highways work as part of the planning costs, and you do not pay for it.

An access problem does not always rule a site out. Sometimes a neighbour is willing to agree terms, or a different route works. We will tell you honestly if we think access makes the site unworkable. See the kinds of land we look at, including farmland and paddocks and small sites.

If you are not sure whether your land has workable access, ask for a free review and we will look at it with you.