74. Mrs. Butlerasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs what percentage of the cost of house building has been represented by the cost of land in each year from 1950 to the latest convenient date.
§ Mr. H. BrookeI have no information about the cost of land used by local authorities or by private builders, or the cost of privately-built houses, that would enable the calculation asked for to be made. In any case, no worthwhile comparison could be made in this way between 1950 and subsequent years.
During this period development charge has been abolished and there have been two changes in the basis of compensation payable when local authorities buy land; at the same time, the land acquired has come to consist increasingly of land covered by unfit houses rather than of virgin land. Moreover, in recent years private building has made a greatly increased contribution to the national housing achievement