Proximity to pylons, cables and masts is often described as a distance rule. The criteria we were able to open use a boundary test instead, with everything else assessed case by case. This explains the difference, and why we are not repeating a figure we could not verify.
A figure in metres circulates everywhere on this subject. The criteria we could actually open do not use a distance at all. They ask about your boundary.
Equity release may involve a lifetime mortgage, secured against your property, or a home reversion plan. It will reduce the value of your estate and impact funding long-term care.
Legal & General’s published criteria, opened 6 September 2026. One provider on one date, quoted as an example of how such a rule can be written.
“We will not accept if within the boundaries, or cables crossing over any of the property's boundaries. Proximity will be assessed on a case by case basis.”
The test is your boundary, not a distance. A pylon standing on your land, or cables passing over it, is the stated decline. A pylon you can see from the window is a case-by-case judgement.
“If Telegraph poles are within the boundary or in close proximity of the property please refer to us. Proximity will be assessed on a case by case basis.”
A referral rather than a decline, and again framed around the boundary first. "Close proximity" is left to be assessed rather than defined.
If you have a pylon in the next field and you have been reading about metres, notice what that wording does not say. It does not measure you. It asks whether the thing is on your land or crossing over it, and then leaves the rest to somebody who has been to look.
You will read that habitable space within 75 metres of a pylon, overhead cable or mobile mast is unacceptable, attributed to Scottish Widows, and Pure Retirement's Heritage product. It may well be accurate. We are not repeating it, and here is exactly why.
We have tried to open Scottish Widows' published lending policy three times across two sessions and it has returned an error page every time. We have never read it. A figure we cannot verify does not go on this site, even when it appears everywhere else, and especially when a reader might use it to decide they have no chance.
If somebody quotes you a distance, ask whose it is and which product it belongs to. That is a better question than the number.
A provider's distance or boundary rule is a commercial judgement about how readily a property would sell. It is not a statement about health, it is not based on one, and nothing on this page should be read as one.
Equity release may involve a lifetime mortgage, secured against your property, or a home reversion plan. It will reduce the value of your estate and impact funding long-term care.
Your title plan answers the question the published criteria actually ask, and it costs a few pounds from the Land Registry. Everything else on this list is a look out of the window.
Whether your property would be accepted. What distance any other lender uses, because we could not open the policy that is said to contain one. And nothing whatsoever about health: a lender’s proximity rule is a commercial judgement about resale.
The first one you can answer yourself from a title plan, and it is the one the criteria we have actually turn on.
Is the pylon or cable inside my boundary, or crossing it?
The question the criteria we have actually turn on. Establish it from your title plan before anything else.
Is there a wayleave or easement recorded on my title?
For your solicitor. If a company has rights over your land it will be on the register, and an adviser will want to know.
Which lenders assess proximity, and how do they describe it?
For an adviser with the whole market. Some publish a boundary test, some are said to publish a distance, and we could only verify the first.
If proximity is assessed case by case, what would the valuer be weighing?
Saleability, in practice. Asking directly gets you a more useful answer than guessing at a number.
Short answers to the things that come up most. None of it is advice, and every figure on this page carries its source.
Not in the criteria we could verify. The published test is your boundary, not a distance: one lender will not accept if a pylon is within the boundaries, or cables cross over any of the property boundaries, and says proximity will be assessed on a case by case basis.
That is the case-by-case judgement rather than the stated decline. The decline is about what is on or over your land.
A referral rather than a decline. The published wording asks advisers to refer where telegraph poles are within the boundary or in close proximity, with proximity again left to be assessed rather than defined.
We could not verify it. That claim is attributed to two providers in third-party content, and we have not been able to open the source documents to confirm it, so this site does not publish it as a rule. It is recorded here as unverified rather than repeated as fact.
Equity release may involve a lifetime mortgage, secured against your property, or a home reversion plan. It will reduce the value of your estate and impact funding long-term care.
One qualified equity release adviser. They will go through your figures and tell you if there is a better answer. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and Vimeo. Say no and none of them loads. What each one stores, and what Microsoft use theirs for.