Public Bodies (Land Sales) (Hansard, 19 May 1982)

§ 14. Mr. Race
asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will seek powers to ensure that all publicly owned undertakings and companies are instructed to offer surplus land to local housing authorities before selling such land on the open market.

§ Mr. Giles Shaw
No, Sir. This would delay disposals as well as being an unreasonable limitation on the bodies concerned.

§ Mr. Race
Does not the hon. Gentleman understand that many housing authorities find difficulty building the number of houses that they would wish to build because of a serious shortage of land, especially in inner city areas? Is he aware that they cannot use the capital sums produced by council house sales because of that? Will the Minister allow them to compete on equal terms with other authorities that want to buy land so that they are not caught by the housing cost yardstick operated by his Department, which prevents many local authorities from building the houses that they need?

§ Mr. Shaw
I remind the hon. Gentleman that, in relation to the land register system, the registers for the first 35 districts showed that about 21,000 acres were 344 available, of which about one half was regarded as being capable of being developed. A great deal of housing land can be made available within local authority areas for development if the authorities are so minded. That is the objective of my right hon. Friend's initiative.

§ Mr. Major
Would it not be absurd for public undertakings to be compelled to sell vacant land to local authorities which themselves have undeveloped vacant land? Is it not more acceptable that the land should be sold to the private sector, where one hopes it would be speedily developed for construction purposes?

§ Mr. Shaw
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The important point about the land register system and the requirement for local authorities to appraise their land holdings is to bring land into more beneficial use. The more that local authorities recognise that they will not only obtain beneficial use from it but increased rateable value, the better.