Farming UK: Boris Johnson calls for landowner shale rights

Boris Johnson has entered the fracking debate with a proposal to change the law to give landowners the commercial rights to oil and gas beneath their land.

The principle is likely to be attractive to farmers with the promise of full control and the possibility to achieve the best returns. However, it would require a major change to old, established law, and in the end, is it practical?

It has been a longstanding principle of English law that a freehold landowner owns “everything reaching to the very heavens and down to the depths of the Earth” directly above and below his land. This normally includes minerals lying beneath the surface of the land.

However, it was considered too complex to allow individual landowners to have control of coal, oil and gas resources required for the nation’s energy supplies.
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