§ Mr. Bob Dunnasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish in the Official Report the recorded glasshouse acreage in the United Kingdom for each year since 1955 to the most recent date for which figures are available and give similar figures for the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium.
§ Mr. WigginThe information requested on glasshouse area in the United Kingdom is as follows:372W
Hectares 1955 1,920 1956 1,902 1957 1,973 1958 1,917 1959 1,844 1960 1,949 1961 1,878 1962 1,906 1963 1,902 1964 1,912 1965 2,098 1966 2,085 1967 *2,788 1968 *2,669 1969 1,890 1970 1,943 1971 1,961 1972 1,942 1973 2,058 1974 2,096 1975 2,049 1976 2,093 1977 2,251 1978 2,194 1979 2,229 1980 2,199 *Include crops in sheds. SourceAgricultural Statistics United Kingdom.
The latest information available on the glasshouse area in the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium is as follows:
Hectares Netherlands 8,455 (1979) Denmark 541 (at 1 January 1980) Belgium 1,818 (1979) I regret that the information for earlier years is not readily available and could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Bob Dunnasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) what action he intends to take pending the outcome of the legal action by the European Economic Community against the Netherlands Government for illicitly providing Dutch glasshouse producers with unfair fuel subsidies; and if he will make a statement;
(2) If, in view of the temporary financial assistance given by the French, Federal German and Belgian Governments to their glasshouse producers, he will seek to give similar assistance to the United Kingdom glasshouse industry.
§ Mr. WigginThe best way of tackling unfair competition is to remove the root cause by action at Community level as provided under the Rome Treaty. This we are seeking to achieve by impressing on the Commission the urgency of ending the distortion of competition that it has identified in the case of gas supplied to glasshouse producers in the Netherlands. Expensive national aids are not the answer.