§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many hectares of land in Britain have become urbanised so far this year; what were comparable figures for 1989, 1990 and 1991; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. BaldryThe information requested is not available. The Government recognise the need for information on land use change to inform planning policy and to contribute to the wider debate on national land use policy issues. In 1985 the Department of the Environment established a new series of land use change statistics—LUCS—which are collected by Ordnance Survey as part of its map revision process. Recent research has confirmed the value of these data, especially for monitoring land changing to urban uses. The LUCS data show that in England during the period 1985–87 there was an average net transfer of 6,000 hectares a year from rural uses to urban uses, as defined for LUCS purposes. At present, the Ordnance Survey is testing new procedures with the objective of providing consistent information for all urban areas across the country within one year of any change occurring.
Recent research on rates of urbanisation has concluded that the overall area of land likely to change to urban use between 1981 and 2001 in England is in the order of 105,000 hectares, representing 0.8 per cent. of England's 429W area. By 2001 it is forecast that around 11 per cent. of England is likely to be in urban use. The Department has also recently carried out research to investigate ways of improving information on land use stock and is proceeding to develop the methodology and carry out pilot work for a land use stock system.