Mr. H. D. Hughesasked the Minister of Agriculture what acreage of land in England and Wales consists wholly or predominantly of mountain, moor, heath, down, cliff or foreshore, respectively; and what proportion each forms of the total area of undeveloped land.
Mr. T. WilliamsThe total area of rough grazing land (including common rough grazings) in England and Wales amounts to about 5½ million acres and represents 19 per cent. of the total agricultural area of approximately 30 million acres. Rough grazing land includes mountain, heath, moor and downland used for grazing as well as many small areas of rough land attached to lowland farms. In addition there is other undeveloped land in England and Wales not used as rough grazing. The estimated area of foreshore is 640,000 acres. I regret that the other figures requested by my hon. Friend are not available.