§ Mr. J. H. Osbornasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what acreage of land is taken up by city and urban development, motorways, trunk roads, bypasses, railways, and navigable waterways and canals, respectively ; and if he will express each as a percentage of the total acreage of land in the British Isles and England, respectively.
§ Mr. Graham PageNot all the figures for which my hon. Friend asks are available and the figures that are available are approximations of varying reliabilities. No figures are available for the British Isles. Land which had been developed for non-agricultural purposes by 1971 was about 4 million acres, or 107W about 12½ per cent. of total area, in England and about 5 million acres or 3½ per cent. in Great Britain. Of this, motorways and trunk roads occupied roughly 45,000 acres or about 0.14 per cent. in England and roughly 60,000 acres and 0.1 per cent. in Great Britain.