Commoners to receive BPS backpayments

The Foundation for Common Land has been working closely with a number of stakeholders such as the NFU, Dartmoor Commoners, Cumbria Commoners and CAAV over the last 3 years to encourage RPA to issue payments to commoners dating back to 2015. We are delighted that these payments are now about to be made. The RPA has apologised to each claimant for the time taken.

These payments arise from the change in system for making payments on common land due to the legal challenge brought by the Minchinhampton commoners. As a result over 2000 commoners were due back payments from 2009 onwards. The complexity of the IT systems has meant it has been challenging for the RPA to make the BPS repayments for 2015, 2016 and 2017. These are now expected in the next few weeks and letters have been emailed to those receiving additional payments. This means that farmers who claim on common land, and are due a Minchinhampton top-up, can expect two payments this year; one for their back payments and one for their 2018 BPS. The 2018 payment for these claimants will account for the additional area allocated from the Minchinhampton ruling with entitlements, where appropriate, added to each SBI to enable the correct payment to be made.