§ 13. Mr. MacCollasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs whether he will state for the last convenient year the names of the local authorities which have received expensive site subsidies, and, in the case of each authority, the average cost per acre of the land in respect of which it has been paid.
§ Mr. BrookeI will, with permission, circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT a table showing for the London County Council and for county boroughs in which payment of expensive site subsidy was approved during the five years ended 31st March, 1961, the number of sites concerned and the average cost per acre of the land. The cost for this purpose of subsidy includes the cost of clearance and preliminary development as well as the cost of buying the land.
To examine individually the records for each of the other 1,400 housing authorities would involve a disproportionate amount of work which I do not think would add significantly to the information in the table, but I will willingly give the hon. Member the facts and figures for any individual authority he desires.
§ Mr. MacCollCan the right hon. Gentleman confirm that there has been a very alarming increase in the cost to public funds of the expensive site subsidy due to the increase in the cost of land? Do the figures he quotes indicate whether it is true that only a few local authorities are suffering from this problem? If so, why is it necessary to look at the returns of many small authorities? Is it not, as he says, the large authorities in the conurbations which are suffering?
§ Mr. BrookeThe list I shall circulate includes the names of about 25 county boroughs, but the hon. Gentleman will, of course, appreciate that this does not give any direct indication of the cost of the bare land. For purposes of expensive site subsidy, one has to take into account also the cost of any buildings that are on the land being acquired, and also the cost of preliminary development of the site.
§ Following is the table:
| Authority | Number of Sites | Average cost per acre as developed |
| £ | ||
| Birmingham | 15 | 10,808 |
| Canterbury | 3 | 5,167 |
| Coventry | 3 | 10,500 |
| Croydon | 8 | 6,620 |
| Bristol | 1 | 13,500 |
| Grimsby | 1 | 6,591 |
| Halifax | 1 | 10,000 |
| Hastings | 1 | 4,500 |
| Huddersfield | 2 | 9,000 |
| Ipswich | 1 | 22,024 |
| Leicester | 1 | 14,550 |
| Manchester | 2 | 8,071 |
| Middlesbrough | 2 | 13,783 |
| Newcastle | 4 | 5,800 |
| Nottingham | 14 | 6,739 |
| Plymouth | 18 | 13,481 |
| St. Helens | 1 | 5,500 |
| Salford | 11 | 8,579 |
| Sheffield | 12 | 12,612 |
| Southampton | 1 | 22,885 |
| South Shields | 1 | 5,500 |
| West Ham | 19 | 7,342 |
| Wolverhampton | 4 | 7,500 |
| York | 1 | 5,988 |
| L.C.C | 155 | 15,616 |