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Commons Bill [HL]

My Lords, I support what my noble friend Lord Peel has said. The rights of the owner are in jeopardy because of this Bill. It needs to be made absolutely clear on the face of the Bill that they are not in jeopardy. To try to benefit from an agri-environment scheme a commoner or a common holder could put forward a proposal to form a commons association against the owner’s wishes. That association will be formed if it is deemed appropriate and the owner will have to abide by that. As the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, said, farming is on a knife edge and if in due course some farmers wish to sell their rights of common, Natural England will be there to snap them up with taxpayers’ money. If there has not been a successful application to form a commons association, the more common rights that Natural England acquires, the greater the chance of a commons association being formed against the owner’s wishes. Therefore, in order to guard the legitimate interests of the owner, it is imperative that it is clearly spelt out in the Bill that the other rights are not affected, although, as my noble friend Lord Peel made clear, once a commons association had been formed, it would have to abide by the rules of that association.