RPA publishes New Forest common for the BPS consultation outcome

Article summary

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has published the consultation outcome of establishing an alternative method to allocate land on the New Forest common for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS). RPA notes that it carefully considered all 72 responses from farmers, residents, famers’ representative and other interest parties, stating that their responses have aided in shaping the future BPS policy in the New Forest. The consultation reports that over 87% of respondents favoured the option of ‘marking fees declared during a reference year as a proxy for rights of pasture and pannage held by commoners’. As a result the RPA has proposed to form a reference amount for every commoner who has claimed BPS in the New Forest, which will be based on the highest number of marking fees that each commoner has declared between the reference years 2015–2020, also known as the ‘best year’. RPA hopes that their proposal will ‘provide a representation of commoners’ grazing rights’...