§ 8. Mr. Doverasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will reconsider his decision to allow local authorities to exclude vacant and under-utilised land from the registers currently in their possession on the basis that they purport to have plans to develop it within the next two years.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Giles Shaw)I shall certainly look again at this, but allowance has to be made for some short-term holding of land to meet planned needs.
§ Mr. DoverWhat check is there to ensure that development takes place within two years? If it does not, will the sites involved be added to the register?
§ Mr. ShawThe land registers do not constitute a finite list of the sites available. The authorities will have to revise them each year to include such land as is no longer able to be developed within the two-year period.
§ Mr. SteenWhy does the Secretary of State not order more disposal orders to get rid of more land? What is holding this up?
§ Mr. ShawIn addition to the points made earlier by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, I remind my hon. Friend that the real need is to ensure that there is a demand for sites actually on the land register. My hon. Friend will be well aware that the economic climate has scarcely been helpful to the rapid disposal of land from the register. Nevertheless, more than 2,500 acres within a few months is not a bad achievement.
§ 9. Mr. Greenwayasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many acres included on the local authority registers are currently in the ownership of statutory undertakers and nationalised industries; and if he will make a statement.
§ 11. Mr. Bevanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many acres currently recorded on the local authority registers of vacant and under-utilised land for England are in local authority ownership; and if he will express that figure as a percentage of the total number of acres recorded.
§ Mr. Giles ShawLand registers currently contain details of over 100,000 acres of unused and underused public land. At 1 July, 61,000 acres, or 64 per cent. of the total at that time, were owned by local authorities and 24,000 acres by nationalised industries and statutory undertakers. [Interruption.] Much of this land can and should be sold and brought into productive use.
§ Mr. GreenwayWould it not be a good idea for the Opposition to learn to distinguish between statutory and private undertakers? Does my hon. Friend agree that a good deal of vacant land could be auctioned off without reserve and put to productive use, thus perhaps producing new jobs and new economic activity?
§ Mr. ShawI entirely agree with my hon. Friend. The object is to ensure the marketing of the land to bring it into more productive use.
§ Mr. BevanIn view of the percentage of land involved, will my right hon. Friend ensure that if local authorities continue to hoard land the rate support grant calculation will exclude the amount that they would have received in rates if they had marketed the land at its maximum rating potential?
§ Mr. ShawI do not think that my hon. Friend's point will need to be pursued if we are effective in ensuring that local authorities make efforts to dispose of the excess land that they hold.
§ Mr. JayIs the Minister aware that a major vacant site in my constituency has been held idle for 15 years by a private property company, which now says that it cannot go ahead until it obtains an urban development grant from his Department?
§ Mr. ShawI should be very glad to receive information from the right hon. Gentleman so that that matter may be pursued.
§ Mr. DoverIs the Minister satisfied that local authorities are making sufficient income by hiring out sites for poster display? Does he agree that this could brighten the environment and bring money to depleted kitties?
§ Mr. ShawWithin the limits of authorities deeming themselves to have planning consent for such activities, I agree that many vacant and derelict sites could benefit from the display of advertisements. The advertisements might indeed draw attention to the existence of land registers in the district council offices.
§ Mr. Frank AllaunIs the Minister aware that many councils are holding on to land because they look forward to increasing, under a Labour Government, the council building programmes so drastically cut by the present Government?
§ Mr. ShawThat cannot be true, because registered land is by definition land for which there is no planned use. It is the excess land that must be disposed of.