HC Deb 26 April 1990 vol 171 cc300-1W
Mr. Nicholas Bennett

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list(a) the total amount of vacant land held by each local authority in England, (b) the percentage this represents of each local authority's land holding and as a percentage of the total land within each authority's area; and (c) the estimated value of the vacant land held by each local authority together with the measures being taken by his Department to encourage local authorities to release such land.

Mr. Moynihan

[holding answer 24 April 1990]: I am arranging for copies of a list showing the amount of each local authority's unused and underused land entered on the Department's land register as at 30 September 1989 to be placed in the Library of the House.

Information on the relationship between these amounts and the total land within each authority's area could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Information on authorities' total land holdings and the value of their registered land is not available.

Measures to encourage the disposal or bringing into use of authorities' vacant land include the incentives for disposal within the capital and revenue finance systems; the public accessibility of the land register and of individual owners' registers, including the publicity given to the "public right to order disposal"; and the use of directions to require authorities to take steps to dispose of particular sites. We are currently considering whether further measures might be appropriate to reduce the amount of public sector vacant land.