Tag Archive for: Landrights

Director’s Statement 2026

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Securing your path to connection

We launched this is as our brand strapline in 2025 because it neatly sums up the service we provide for our clients. That ‘path’, with its pitfalls, risks, stakeholders and landowners can make or break any development, because if power isn’t secured, it won’t go ahead.

The routes we take to secure that path have always driven the evolution of CLM. But now more than ever and alongside our customer and industry insight, they’re playing a key role in defining our strategic growth plans for this year and beyond.

 

Laying out our stall

We’re starting 2026 with redraft of our purpose and vision.  Why we do what we do:

  • Our purpose

To deliver fast, accurate, and legally robust land rights solutions that enable utility companies and developers to deliver critical infrastructure efficiently and compliantly

  • Our vision

To become the UK’s leading independent specialist in land rights and consent management for utilities, recognised for expertise, service quality, and a commitment to employee wellbeing.

I’m serious about these statements and would like to take this opportunity to remind you of the benefits you can enjoy by working with us as a completely independent landrights services provider. We’re sector specialists, we work across all DNO regions, we’re able to support on both IDNO and DNO agreements and we can tailor our services to suit individual ICP/CPO requirements. All in all, our Purpose and Vision statements have been written because they’re true to who we are. They wholly reflect the service we currently deliver and provide a clear ambition for what we’re striving to achieve.

 

Stand out success

Through listening to our customers and identifying how we can better tailor our services to meet specific needs, we’ve developed a suite of standalone packages. More will come on this in 2026 with early elements shown on the ‘Our Services’ page of our lovely new website, but a tremendous success story is our Landrights Investigation service.

We’ve seen a phenomenal level of uptake in this package. Developers, CPOs, networks and ICPs are wanting our experienced team to give their projects a ‘once over’ before committing to a route or project delivery timescale. Identifying risks is more important than ever and as a result, our service is saving our clients money as well as increasing their understanding of the intricacies surrounding the landrights process.

The success of this service, along with the dedication of the entire CLM team and our wonderful clients who continue to use our expertise and recommend us to others, has meant we’ve achieved our financial targets for 2025. In my Statement last year I referred to our set figures as ‘bold’, but we did it, so thank you for your support.

 

Focussing on our customers

You are our world. So much so, we’re looking at a new marketing campaign for 2026 which will focus entirely on you. We’ll be investing further in CLM Live – we simply haven’t looked back since we launched the platform last Spring, and across 2026 we’ll be phasing out our manual reporting altogether.

We’ll also be keeping a keen eye on the training and support we provide for our clients. We know the landrights industry is a world unto itself and we see it as our responsibility to help you navigate your way. And as part of this, I’d like to host a ‘Developer Day’. (Please let me know if this is something you’d like to work with us on.)

 

Moving forward

Over the next three to five years, we plan to increase our market share across the UK, strengthening strategic partnerships with utility companies and ICPs, and investing further in technologies which streamline the landrights acquisition process.

We’re also in the final stages of our Achilles certification. This will open us up to working directly with public sector bodies and DNOs – an exciting route to take and one which will undoubtedly be full of opportunity.

 

Our team

None of the above would be possible without the CLM team. Each and every member has worked with the utmost commitment and professionalism over the past 12 months and it’s a pleasure to work alongside them.

A few key changes over the past year have included establishing a formal Senior Management Team. This is made up of Aileen Paterson, Chris Neville and Mike Beckwith, with of course Hamish and myself as Directors. The SMT has been set up to help better manage the business, not only in its day to day running, but also to provide a forum for scope and discussion around how we move forward and retain our position as industry innovators and leaders.

Moving into 2026, we’ll be extending our Ketton office to improve cross-team collaboration – which of course includes celebrating one team member’s upcoming 10th ‘work-versary’, a team baby and a wedding!

 

And to end on a high…

Here are a few highlights which are definitely worth shouting about:

  • We were contracted by one of the big five water companies to support the AMP 8 electrical upgrade of sites – involving administering the review of power requirements for approx. 3000 sites over the next five years
  • We were ‘Highly Commended’ in the Inspiring Women in Construction and Engineering Awards
  • We were finalists in the Construction News Specialists Awards
  • We were also finalists in the Great British Workplace Wellbeing Awards
  • Our client Instavolt has won three industry awards for its Winchester Superhub ultra rapid charging station
  • And I was named Professional Services Leader of the Year in the East Midlands Business Leadership Awards.

Thank you once again for your valued custom, here’s to a powerful 2026.

Laura Wilson

Director

 

How we communicate

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We recently launched our new customer platform – CLM Live, and with it, brought a whole new perspective to how we communicate. Our lead coordinator Chris Neville project managed its development and launch, so to get to know how it works, we asked him a few questions.

Why CLM Live was developed? 

CLM Live was born from an idea about giving full visibility to all clients on their projects, providing them with information which was immediately available.

How did you determine what information it should contain? 

It’s based on the information we track internally, set as key milestones. Each is a key point in the lifecycle of a legal agreement, so lets the customer to know exactly where legals are up to and what steps there are left before completion

Who devised the navigation for it? 

Simplicity was key. We didn’t want people to have to go into a menu, then sub menus galore. We wanted a home page and then a separate screen for each agreement which displayed everything. The easier it is to use, the more effective it will be.

What sort of comments have you received from customers who have tested it, or tried it since launch? 

So far, the feedback has been extremely positive. With customers commenting on how it should make their lives even easier going forward.

Do you think this will replace other forms of communication – or reduce the need for them maybe?

I think it will enhance how we communicate, rather than replace anything we currently do. There’s a place for lots of different communication methods and we value the time we spend talking to clients. CLM Live is more about making it easier to access information about vital project updates.

What key benefits do you think CLM Live will bring for CLM and for your customers? 

Mainly in enabling instant access to information and full visibility of the legal process.

Are you considering further scope for CLM Live in the future – as an app maybe? 

There are plenty of ideas we have in mind for future builds, such as allowing clients to run off reports and potentially syncing in the financial side to a project, allowing for better budget tracking for our clients.

If you’d like to find out more about CLM Live, drop the team an email at [email protected]

What does good communication look like?

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It’s human nature for us to criticise others for poor communication, but if you sat down and thought about it, what would your wish list for good communication look like?

Maybe it’s about ensuring you’re given all available information – the good, the bad and the ugly?

Maybe it’s expecting the person or company who’s providing the information to filter out what you don’t need or want to know, demonstrating their understanding of your role in a situation?

Maybe it’s about the format the information is provided in – but does the sender know you’d prefer a phone call rather than an email; or an email is better than a letter?

Or maybe you have different expectations for different circumstances?

It’s not straightforward is it.

I think good communication is about knowing your audience. In a previous article I talked about who we communicate with, and it’s so critically important for us to understand this. We can’t assume everyone we work with understands every aspect of our work – why should they? We’re there as the landrights services provider and it’s up to us to manage the information for them and communicate as we see fit.

In our recent video post on LinkedIn, Landrights Manager Aileen Paterson talked about ‘need to know’ and ‘nice to know’ in terms of the information we communicate to a client. Any professional services provider who doesn’t proactively communicate the ‘need to know’, isn’t doing their job properly, but the difference really comes into its own when you’ve chosen to communicate the ‘nice to know’ information.

As Aileen explained, we know our audiences. We know what their understanding of the landrights process is and the level to which they want to get involved. We will always ensure they have the ‘need to know’ information, but for the ‘nice to know’, we’ll cherry pick. We know who prefers email updates on a Friday afternoon; who wants a catch up on Teams on a Monday to talk through the week ahead; who wants bullet points on a text; and who would rather meet up in person once a month for a cup of coffee to talk through all the ins and outs of their projects. For me, that’s what good communication looks like.

CLM Announced as Finalist in Construction News Specialists Awards

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Rutland-based landrights service provider Connections Legal Management (CLM) has been named as a Finalist in the 2025 Construction News Specialists Awards.

Shortlisted in the Health, Safety and Wellbeing category with its submission entitled: ‘To be the best we can be’, CLM’s entry was selected by a panel of industry judges for recognition in the Awards which are now in their 21st year.

In its entry, CLM demonstrated how a business can thrive professionally, while going above and beyond what others might only consider to support the wellbeing of its team members.  It provided evidence of how its success had been noted by others in the industry, helping to put the conversation about employee wellbeing, well and truly on the table.

Director, Laura Wilson, said: “To be recognised, even as a Finalist in these national Awards is an honour for us – and for a subject which we’re so passionate about.

“While we’re office-based and perhaps don’t face some of the operational hazards which other supply chain companies might in their day-to-day work, looking after the health, safety and wellbeing of our team members is no less important. In fact, initiatives we’ve introduced have gone on to be adopted by others working in the construction sector, taking our lead as an example.”

Award entries were received across 24 categories and judged by more than 60 industry peers and professionals.  CLM’s submission will now be reviewed alongside five other finalists with Laura attending an in-person judging panel in London in July, ahead of the Awards presentation evening in September.

Why CLM is underpinned by communication

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As a landrights services provider, what we do doesn’t readily roll off the tongue – it’s functional but essential for securing network connections. And when you’ve worked in this sector for a few years, you get to know what winds people up and can also clearly see where opportunities lie for offering something different.

I founded CLM 11 years ago because I discovered a market niche. A gap for a unique service which provided a specialist accompaniment to using solicitors or inhouse legal departments. The key element underpinning this spark of an idea, was proactive communication.

I was asked at an event last week by a Main Contractor if they could contact CLM directly to get an update on legals. I answered yes, but caveated that by reminding the room that we’re not solicitors and so our work isn’t legally privileged. We talk to whoever we need to, but also that we don’t just provide legal updates, instead we look at a much wider picture, on delivery, overcoming hurdles and identifying who is responsible for sorting any outstanding elements.

The thing with securing the path for a network connection is there are usually a lot of people involved. DNOs, IDNOs, ICPs, IGTs, (I’ll include an acronym list at the end of this article) end users, developers, investors, private landowners, statutory consultees. If the concerns, questions, resolutions, timescales, risks, challenges, etc., aren’t communicated proactively with the right parties, then entire development programmes can be severely delayed, or grind to a halt.

If people know what’s going on and are kept informed not just when they need to be, but whenever there’s new information, or even just checking in, then the whole process works a whole lot better.

In addition to proactive communications though, is understanding what it takes to be a good communicator. It’s a skill to be able to tune in to the who, what, how, where and when of communication. This is something which I’m always working to educate myself on, and actively encourage the CLM team to develop their intuition too. To do this effectively we need to not only be fully proficient in the service we provide, but also have an indepth understanding of our customers – appreciating their level of knowledge, their wants and needs for information and the ways in which we engage with them to improve their experience.

Communications is complicated, but extraordinarily effective when it’s well managed. CLM is underpinned by communications because if it wasn’t we couldn’t work in the way our clients appreciate and we wouldn’t have a business to celebrate.

Over the next few months, CLM is going to get thoroughly under the skin of communications and its importance in our industry. I invite you to join us for the journey and provide us with any feedback you have.

Laura Wilson, Director, CLM

*****

*DNO – Distribution Network Operator

IDNO – Independent Distribution Network Operator

ICP – Independent Connections Provider

IGT – Independent Gas Transporter

Laura Wilson crowned Professional Services Leader of the Year

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At the annual East Midlands Leadership Awards run by media outlet TheBusinessDesk.com this week, CLM Director Laura Wilson was named as winner in the Professional Services Leader of the Year category.

Beating off stiff competition from some of the region’s most respected legal and niche professional services firms, Laura scooped the title after impressing judges with evidence of her work ethic, investment in her team and the focus she has on developing a future for her business.

The Awards took place at Nottingham’s Crowne Plaza Hotel where magazine editors Sam Metcalf and Alex Turner presented Laura with her Award in front of more than 200 business leaders and representatives from across the East Midlands region.

Laura said: “This was such a surprise and I can’t believe I won! CLM is well known locally in Rutland where we’re based and by the industry in which we work, but to be recognised at a regional level, and alongside larger, highly credible and respected professional services firms seems a little unreal.”

TheBusinessDesk.com’s East Midlands’ editor Sam Metcalf, who chaired the panel, added: “Congratulations to all our winners – and those shortlisted. We had a record number of entries to the Leadership Awards this year, and the standard of nominations was higher than ever, displaying the depth and breadth of the leadership talent in the East Midlands.”

CLM Director Laura Wilson shortlisted in Annual Leadership Awards

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Laura Wilson, Director of CLM has been named as a Finalist in the Professional Services Leader category for the 2025 East Midlands Leadership Awards run by media outlet TheBusinessDesk.com.

Judged by a panel of previous Award winners and chaired by the TheBusinessDesk.com’s East Midlands editor Sam Metcalf, submissions were considered across 17 different categories, with winners to be crowned at an event being held at the Crowne Plaza in Nottingham on 12th March.

Laura’s entry talked about her work ethic, influential role models, investment in her team and the service she strives for CLM to deliver for its clients. It also explored her engagement with industry, her thirst for innovation and the focus she has on developing a future for her business.

Laura said: “I feel honoured to be shortlisted as a Finalist in these Awards, though I do always say that recognition for our business should be about our team and not focus on me. I did however have a little ’whoop’ to myself when I heard the news and look forward to attending the Awards night with my colleagues and celebrating this achievement with them.”

TheBusinessDesk.com’s East Midlands editor Sam Metcalf, who chaired the panel, added: “We had a record number of entries to the Leadership Awards this year, and the standard of nominations was higher than ever, displaying the depth and breadth of the leadership talent in the East Midlands.”

Under Laura’s leadership, CLM was also recently named Peterborough Small Business of the Year at the Peterborough Telegraph Awards.

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