Commons Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for that question. Indeed, they will have the right to acquire or dispose of land, but I point out that they are potentially able to raise money from sources other than fees. Large sums of money for capital expenditure or more significant improvements could be raised through other means—for example, entering into agri-environment schemes, wayleaves for easements or car parking charges, if that was appropriate. Perhaps I may give some examples. On Danby Commons—I do not know whether that North Yorkshire common is known to noble Lords—bracken control and cattle gridding were achieved through a combination of local and European Union sources of funding, including Objective 5b money. The Gower Commons initiative has undertaken cattle gridding, agricultural management and access work on commons with the assistance of money from the Heritage Lottery Fund. More than £200,000 in match funding has been provided by labour from commoners themselves on that common. And statutory bodies, such as boards of conservators, are often funded through precepts on local residents collected by the local authority through the council tax. My example there is the Malvern Board of Conservators. I am afraid that I have taken some time to answer the noble Lord’s excellent question, but the answer is that there are other ways of raising money—not just in theory but in practice, too.