§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will give details of the levels of agricultural borrowing in the United Kingdom for the last five years.
§ Mr. BishopThe average levels, in the United Kingdom, of (1) bank advances outstanding to agriculture, forestry and fishing and (2) loans outstanding from the Agricultural Mortgage Corporation Ltd., the Land Improvement Company Ltd. and the Scottish Agricultural Securities Corporation Ltd. are as follows:
(1) Bank advances outstanding (2) Loans outstanding £m. £m. Years ending February*— 1971–72 … … 590 189 1972–73 … … 695 202 1973–74 … … 835† 240 1974–75 … … 997 276 1975–76 … … 1,023‡ 295 * The annual figures given in column 1 are averages of bank advances outstanding at midmonth in May, August, November and February, and, in column 2, loans outstanding at end month, mainly for the same months. † Figures for this and later years include returns for six finance house banks included for the first time in November 1973. ‡ Not strictly comparable with figures for earlier years because of changes in the definitions used in the analysis of bank advances from May 1975 onwards.