§ 3. Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the latest estimate of publicly owned waste and vacant land shown in the land registers so far published.
§ The Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Michael Heseltine)The 350 registers now published contain details of 9,300 sites covering 83,500 acres of unused and underused public land. About 1,000 acres have already been removed from the registers because the land has been disposed of.
§ Mr. HeddleIs it not a national scandal that so much land is lying idle, particularly in the conurbations of London, Birmingham and Manchester? Will my right hon. Friend confirm that the councils which own the land and have neglected it for years should sell it post-haste and reinvest the proceeds in improving houses and building new houses when local circumstances demand such action?
§ Mr. HeseltineMy hon. Friend is right. The new freedoms for capital expenditure given to local government mean that if local authorities sell such land they can use the money for any capital project. The issue is wider than that, because some of the land to which I have referred is owned by statutory undertakings and nationalised industries.
§ Mr. EasthamIs it not time that Conservative Members substantiated some of their erroneous statements about surplus land and ownership? Is the Secretary of State aware that investigations often confirm that such land is privately owned and has nothing to do with local authorities?
§ Mr. HeseltineWe have investigated and proved beyond peradventure that large areas of land are owned by the public sector and could be disposed of to create a substantial pay-off.
§ Mr. Michael McNair-WilsonHow does my right hon. Friend intend to ensure that the land is used? Does the existence of the land allow him to revise his estimate of the number of green field sites that he requires for future housing development?
§ Mr. HeseltineMy hon. Friend refers to an important subject. He will be aware that the acreage of green fields now being taken for development is substantially down on what it was a few years ago. I am determined to pursue a whole range of initiatives to speed up the release of land on the land registers. I should be grateful for any help from right hon. and hon. Members in alerting local authorities to the opportunities and the potential.
§ Mr. Greville JannerIs not the real national scandal that hundreds of thousands of people are waiting to be housed? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that in places such as Leicester the problem is not that there is no land, but that builders, mainly private builders, cannot sell the houses that they have built because unemployed people cannot afford to buy them?
§ Mr. HeseltineThe hon. and learned Gentleman cannot have been in the Chamber when my hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Construction announced substantial increases in housing starts. I hope that the hon. and learned Gentleman welcomes that as much as I do.