§ Mr. Eadieasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the cost of land reclamation in Scotland in the years 1960 to 1968, respectively; what type of land it was; what were the locations; and how much of it went back to producing for agricultural use.
§ Mr. RossI regret that I do not have all the information requested by my hon. Friend.
Rehabilitation of derelict land is undertaken by local authorities with the aid of grant under the Local Employment Act, 1960, or the Industrial Development Act, 1966. The current rate of Government assistance is 85 per cent. of the net cost of the schemes, and the amounts paid in the years 1960 to 1968 are set out in the table below. All the schemes were in the Central Belt of Scotland; information is not available about the classification of the land or how much of it is directly devoted to agriculture, but bringing it into use reduces pressure on agricultural land:
£ 1960–61 … … … 25,841 1961–62 … … … 5,822 1962–63 … … … 28,884 1963–64 … … … 41,217 1964–65 … … … 348,364 1965–66 … … … 376,818 1966–67 … … … 432,316 1967–68 … … … 358,090