5 and 6. Mr. Bob Brownasked the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if he is satisfied that his Department is occupying the minimum amount of land in the United Kingdom for its requirements: and if he will make a statement;
1794 (2) if he will take steps to speed up the release by his Department of land to local authorities for housing or other purposes.
§ Mr. ReynoldsWe do keep land holdings to the minimum and 130,000 acres have been disposed of in the last five years. But before we offer land or property for disposal we must ensure that there is no likely defence use for it; and this may take time.
Mr. BrownIs my hon. Friend aware that in the County of Northumberland, where already a large area of land is sterilised by the Army, there is growing concern at reports that more land is to be taken as a training area? Is he further aware that in my own constituency it took not months but years for the city council to negotiate the use of land for development as a trading estate?
§ Mr. ReynoldsI have said that this does take quite a lot of time. We have first of all to decide whether there is other Service use and then whether there are other Government uses before we can offer it to local authorities. The reports to which my hon. Friend is referring are presumably newspaper reports for which I am not responsible.
§ Mr. Humphrey AtkinsIf the land held by the hon. Gentleman's Department at the moment is at a minimum, when he brings further troops home from the Continent would it not be less than the minimum?
§ Mr. ReynoldsI have answered Questions about this on several occasions. It depends on the type of equipment that these troops have.