Woodland owners cannot register land on the RLR until they are on the Customer Register.
EWGS applicants and the land must be registered on the Customer Register (CR) and the Rural Land Register (RLR) respectively. This requirement was introduced in April 2008 to meet European Union regulations, notably:
- to maintain a list of 'beneficiaries' with unique references so that inspections can be co-ordinated, cross compliance applied and to enable reporting on total EU funding by beneficiary.
- to ensure that no parcel of land is receiving incompatible EU funding via the use of cross checks. This includes the Single Payment Scheme and/or any of the RDPE schemes (of which EWGS is part).
Registering land on the RLR ensures every parcel of land has a unique reference. When approving RDPE grants and payments, these unique references allow us to check you are eligible for grant and that there is no double funding.
Operations Note 019 - Customer and Land Registration (PDF 52kb) gives further details and explains transitional arrangements.
How to register your land
For details of how to register with the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) please refer to Registering with the RPA (PDF 32kb).
Application forms and guidance can be obtained from the RPA by either:
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phoning 0845 603 7777,
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writing to the Rural Payments Agency, PO Box 1058, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE99 4YQ,
- going to the RPA Registering land web page
Farmland will generally already have been registered on the RLR as will some woods on farms. This may not be the case however if you have not previously sought funding through agri-environment schemes or if you only own woodland.
If you are unsure whether or not your land is registered, you can request a map from the Forestry Commission which will identify parcels registered on the RLR. For clarity, the 1:10,000 maps only show the boundaries of RLR parcels while the 1:5000 and 1:2500 maps show the boundaries and the final four digits of the RLR parcel number. You may use this map to accompany your RLE1 form where necessary.
RLR changes
A change to the RLR is recommended when woodland has been planted or established. For example, an area of planting may be a small area within a larger RLR land parcel. If the area is protected with a permanent fence line (one that will remain for more than five years), then the area of land can be considered to be a unique land parcel on the RLR (if over 0.01 hectares). Similarly, if your claim is for a second instalment of Woodland Creation Grant then as long as the trees are sufficiently established to be considered a permanent feature on the ground, they can be considered to be unique land parcels on the RLR.
If areas of tree planting are already defined as unique land parcels on the RLR, no changes are required unless the boundary of the planting has changed.
It is not a requirement that you update your RLR information but ensuring the RLR holds accurate information improves the accuracy of land use cross checks, reducing the occurrence of failure and subsequent investigation that can delay payments. An up to date RLR also assists the RPA Inspectorate, improving the accuracy of their inspections. The register should therefore be kept up to date and customers should notify the RPA of any changes that arise.
