§ Mr. Arthur Jonesasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his policy for the release of land for residential development in the outer metropolitan counties, in particular in relation to the rate of provision of houses per year until 1976.
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§ Mr. Graham PageMy policy is that sufficient land should be made available to meet the demand for residential development, by the application to the outer metropolitan counties of the relevant items of the policy for land availability stated in the answer which I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Derbyshire, South-East (Mr. Rost) on 8th December last; and I keep under examination the position of the outer metropolitan area, as elsewhere, with this object in mind.—[Vol. 827, c. 1287.]
§ Mr. Arthur Jonesasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimates have been made of the acreages of land likely to be available for residential development in each of the outer metropolitan counties for the period 1972 to 1976.
§ Mr. Graham PageFigures of the kind sought by my hon. Friend for future years are not available, nor would I consider them helpful in my study of the problems of land availability in the outer metropolitan area and elsewhere—a study being undertaken with the aid of local authorities, builders' organisations and others with a view to assessing likely needs and the prospects of meeting them: that is to say, the availability of the right land in the right place at the right time.