§ 2.57 p.m.
§ THE EARL OF ALBEMARLEMy Lords, I beg to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, in their view, the water consumption figures disclosed in Professor Balchin's article in The Times of June 24 foreshadow need for an immigration policy plus some land reclamation policy as a beginning to offset the 60,000 acres a year, on average, loss of land to development as well as the run-off from that acreage of rain falling upon impermeable surfaces.]
§ LORD MANCROFTMy Lords, Professor Balchin's recent article in The Times about our water supplies discloses little that is not already known to the water industry and the responsible Government Departments. They have been taking what they believe to be the appropriate measures. Since the war, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government have carried out water surveys covering most of the country, which have been of great value to the water undertakings in making plans to meet their requirements up to 1970. As I reminded my noble friend Lord Albemarle yesterday, a sub-committee of the Central Advisory Water Committee is at present inquiring into the extent to which the demand for water for all purposes is increasing and the difficult problems involved in meeting it. Her Majesty's Government consider that the wise course is to await their report.
The Government's policy on land reclamation is indicated by the Agriculture Bill, the Committee stage of which your Lordships considered yesterday. This makes provision, in Part II, for grants for the reclamation of waste land. This is in addition to the grants already available for the reclamation of hill farming land under the Hill Farming Acts, 1946 to 1956.
§ THE EARL OF ALBEMARLEMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his 918 Answer, but I should like to ask two supplementary questions. While regretting that the official brief apparently prefers to belittle (shall I say?) the professor's careful collection of facts and figures, would not imitation be a sincere form of flattery if the Department, after two years of total silence, would take the consumer publicly into its confidence by itself issuing interim figures?
§ LORD MANCROFTMy Lords, I am sorry that the noble Earl should have thought that I was belittling Professor Balchin; indeed I did nothing of the sort; I merely informed him that what Professor Balchin had to say was already known. I hope the noble Earl will agree that there, is nothing derogatory in that. I will certainly consider the point he has made about interim figures.
§ THE EARL OF ALBEMARLEMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that answer. My second supplementary question is this. In regard to my use of the words "immigration policy", I would ask the noble Lord: does not the position that we may shortly reach boil down to the old story of the inability of the pint pot to hold more than capacity?—which, being interpreted, signifies the weight of population for which a full supply of water can be made available uniformly over the whole country.
§ LORD MANCROFTMy Lords, I owe my noble friend an apology. Owing to lack of familiarity with his handwriting, I was under the impression that the word "immigration" was a misprint for "irrigation". I beg the noble Earl's pardon. I now take the new point he makes, but I am certain that this is one of the points that is being inquired into by the Central Advisory Water Committee. I should not have thought, however, that immigration had a great deal of effect on the water consumption in this country as it stands at the moment.
§ LORD OGMOREMy Lords, would the noble Lord inform the House what stage the inquiry into the water supplies in Wales has now reached?
§ LORD MANCROFTNot without notice, I am afraid.