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Commons Bill [HL]

It may be for the convenience of the Committee if I speak to my Amendment No. 176. Broadly speaking, it follows the line taken by the noble Duke. I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 178 and 179, to which I have added my name. We need a little clarification on the issue of a commons association raising money. Raising money presumably means that you have to borrow or, as I understand it, it may perfectly in order to ask the commoners for funds. But to borrow from, say, a bank, a commons association must have a legal entity. Will the commons association be a company? Will it be a legal entity that can enter into a loan agreement with the bank? If so, will it be able to offer commons as security to the bank or to any other lender? What kind of interest rate is a commons association liable to bear? What will be the liabilities of the members of the association if they enter into such contractual arrangements with a bank or another lender? A whole raft of questions can be asked on the issue of a commons association being allowed to raise money in the furtherance of its activities. Then there is the question of acquiring or disposing of land, which comes under Amendment No. 178. I am not sure what that means and I should be grateful if my noble friend could advise me. I do not understand how a commons association can acquire or dispose of a common if the land has an owner. Therefore, I would welcome advice on what that means and on whether the provision needs to be in the Bill, given the new consent clause which the Government are to move. Lastly, I turn to the whole question of raising money under subsection (3). There are a lot of problems here which we need to explore.