§ 27. Mr. Hardyasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the average cost of an acre of building land on 1st January 1972 and on 1st January 1973; and what is the figure for the latest convenient date.
§ Mr. ChannonThe latest available figures cover the second half of 1972, when the weighted average price per acre of private sector housing land in England and Wales was some £20,000. For the second half of 1971 it was some £10,400
§ Mr. HardyThe Minister spoke extremely quietly. Does not that answer show the sickening severity of housing land price inflation? Is it not clear that it continued unabated during the so-called freeze, while the Government remained content to tolerate or encourage private rapacity? Would the Minister care to say whom he regards as responsible for this.
Mr. ChansonI cannot accept what the hon. Gentleman says. The figures I have given to the House are about four months behind, because the index carries a built-in time lag between the date when the price of a plot is agreed and the recording of the price statistics. The figures are therefore considerably out of date. The short answer is to release more land and to provide more land, so that plenty of housing land is available for people to build houses.
§ Mr. Frank AllaunWill the Minister please repeat the figures? Will he admit that, even if his latest proposal to bring more land into use succeeded, it would still have to be bought at market value—which is often a hundred times its previous value—before building or planning permission is given? Should not it be sold at its previous value as potato fields or disused dockland, as is proposed in the plan for public ownership of land just published by the Labour Party?
§ Mr. ChannonI have read the Labour Party's plans with great interest. I recommend them to the House to read. If they were ever put into operation they would cost tens of thousands of millions of pounds. They are wholly impracticable.
§ Mr. William HamiltonOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. In his original reply the Minister deliberately mumbled. For the convenience of the House, might the hon. Gentleman be allowed to repeat the figures for which my hon. Friend asked in his original Question?
§ Mr. ChannonIf the House would like me to repeat the original answer, I should be glad to do so. It reads:
The latest available figures cover the second half of 1972, when the weighted average price per acre of private sector housing land in England and Wales was some £20,000. For the second half of 1971 it was some £10,400.
§ Mr. William HamiltonFurther to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. The Minister still has not shouted out those figures. My hearing is not inadequate. I did not hear the first figure. Will the hon. Gentleman please repeat it?
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. This is not a matter for the Chair. I confess that I did not hear the figure the first time, but certainly I heard it the second time.
§ Mr. FreesonFurther to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. It is clear that quite a number of hon. Members did not hear the figures quoted. I heard them reasonably clearly, being in fairly close proximity to the hon. Gentleman, but may I ask for confirmation that he said that there had been a 100 per cent. increase in land prices?
§ Mr. SpeakerI do not think that that is a point of order.