§ 21. Mr. Greenwayasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will now take steps to ensure that land on the land registers suitable for house building is sold by local authorities and other public sector owners to the private sector.
§ Mr. Giles ShawFurther action is now in train to secure disposal of registered land. Formal letters have 896 been sent to the owners of 78 sites, both local authorities and some nationalised industries, asking them to declare their intentions for the use or disposal of the land. In the light of the replies my right hon. Friend will consider in each case whether he should direct disposal.
§ Mr. GreenwayI welcome the progress revealed in my hon. Friend's reply, but may I press him to go as fast as he can? Is he aware that there are many local authorities and public sector bodies holding land that entrepreneurs would gladly take over and upon which they would build homes that people would want to buy?
§ Mr. ShawI accept my hon. Friend's point that there must be proper disposal of land for which there is no present use. I remind my hon. Friend that about 6,000 acres on the national land register have already been sold or are under negotiation.
§ Mr. Stephen RossDoes the Minister accept that there are local authorities, in my constituency and elsewhere, where the housing list is still very long, and therefore it makes sense for the local authorities to have some land up their sleeves so that they can continue with their public sector building programme, which is the only hope for many people?
§ Mr. ShawThere is no reason why local authorities should not have plans for the disposal of the land. This is land for which there is no present or forecast use.
§ Mr. SkinnerWill the Minister ensure that a little note is sent to the Foreign Office—and make sure that the Prime Minister knows about it—on this matter of selling land, so that when the Foreign Office comes to consider all that land in the Falkland Islands, which is supposed to be British to the core, it can be treated in the same say, and sold off to the people who live there?
§ Mr. SkinnerTry.
§ Mr. SteenWhile it is true that the Government have seen that 6,000 acres on the register have been sold off, 94,000 acres remain. What plans do the Government have to sell off public land that is vacant—land that includes 3,000 acres held by my hon. Friend's Department?
§ Mr. ShawThe Department has a policy of seeking to dispose of all Government-owned land on the register. I remind my hon. Friend that about 66 per cent. of land register land is in the hands of local authorities, and about 19 per cent. is in the hands of statutory undertakers. I accept that a great deal remains to be done, but only about 10,000 or 11,000 of the 94,000 acres to which my hon. Friend is referring may be available for proper development for housing.