§ 40. Sir F. Medlicottasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware that no exact information is available as to what is the proportion of land in Great Britain now owned by the State, and that further land is continually passing out of private ownership into 199 the direct or indirect ownership of the State and, in view of the implications of this transfer of ownership, if he will ascertain the figures so that it may be seen to what extent the nationalisation of the land is taking place by degrees.
Mr. AmoryDetailed information could not be obtained without a disproportionate expenditure of time and labour.
§ Sir F. MedlicottIs my right hon. Friend aware that even since this Question was put on the Order Paper it has been announced that a further 86,000 acres of land are to be retained by the Ministry of Agriculture, instead of being returned to private ownership? Will the Government be on their guard against nationalisation of the land by what the late Sidney Webb would have called "the inevitability of gradualness"?
Mr. AmoryI think that my hon. Friend is overlooking the fact that there is a steady handing back of land by various Government Departments at present. It is not as if this were only a one-way movement, as he implies. In my capacity as Minister of Agriculture in the last year or two I participated in the handing back of a substantial acreage of land to private owners.