§ Colonel Burtonasked the Minister of Agriculture the number of farmers who have been dispossessed on account of inefficient husbandry; the average acreage of their holdings; and what is the largest, smallest and the number under 200 acres?
Mr. HudsonUp to 30th August, 1943, a period of four years, the tenancies of 2,661 holdings in England and Wales covering an area of 244,477 acres have been terminated by notice under Defence Regulation 62. This is approximately 1 per cent. of the cultivated area in England and Wales. In addition, possession has been taken under Defence Regulation 51 in 6,332 separate cases, comprising a total of 371,040 acres. It is impossible to state the number of cases under either head which involve the dispossession of a farmer in the sense of deprivation of his home or his livelihood, or both. The first pair of figures includes numerous instances where the tenancy of the holding was subsidiary to some other occupation, and covers such cases as off-lying fields or even entire farms held by tenants who occupy and live on other farms, and land occupied by persons engaged in some trade or business which prevents them from farming the land properly. The second pair of figures includes a great418W many cases where part only of a holding is taken, or where the land was not occupied by a farmer, but was being used for some unimportant non-agricultural purpose or not at all; e.g., undeveloped building sites, golf courses, commons, parklands and extensive areas of derelict land. The number of such cases cannot be stated, nor would it be possible without a prolonged examination of the records to give the other details asked for by my hon. and gallant Friend.