§ Mr. Foulkesasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the conversion factors, appropriate for special asset sales, for both 1979 and 1980 survey prices into 1979–80, 1980–81 and 1981–82 estimated outturn prices;
78W(2) if he will publish in the Official Report (a) a table updating for 1981–82 on the same price basis as the answer of 18 January 1982 to the hon. Member for South Ayrshire, Official Report, column 78, on the disposal of public industrial interest and (b) the total gross proceeds from the disposal of public industrial interests for the years 1979–80, 1980–81 and 1981–82, also on the same price basis.
§ Mr. BrittanFor special asset sales, 1979 and 1980 survey prices were both equivalent to 1979–80 outturn prices. Outturn prices for 1980–81 and 1981–82 can be converted into 1979–80 outturn prices by deflating the cash figure by the movement in the deflator of gross domestic product at market prices. This implies conversion factors of 0.846 for 1980–81 outturn prices, and, assuming an increase of 11 per cent. in the GDP deflator between 1980–81 and 1981–82, 0.762 for 1981–82 outturn prices.
I gave details of receipts from special asset sales in 1981–82 in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Mr. Beaumont-Dark) on 11 May—[Vol. 23, c. 214.] The following table gives these figures in 1979–80 outturn prices, using the conversion factor of 0.762 referred to before.
79W
Special Sales of Assets 1981–82 Transaction Receipts (£ million, cash)
Receipts (£ million, 1979–80 outturn prices)
Sales of leases of certain motorway service areas—sales of land and buildings 19 14 British Sugar Corporation shares 44 34 Cable and Wireless shares 182 139 New Town Development Corporations and the Commission for new Towns—sales of land and buildings 73 56 Sale of oil stockpiles 50 38 Sale of other stocks 19 14 Amersham International 64 49 Forestry Commission—sales of land, plantations and buildings 7 5 National Freight Company 5 4
Transaction Receipts (£ million, cash)
Receipts (£ million, 1979–80 outturn prices)
National Enterprise Board—sale of certain share 2 2 Grown Agent—sale of property 7 5 Property of service agency—sale of property 1 1 Governments nil-paid rights in 1981 BP rights issue 8 6 Gross total 481 367 Effect of delivery of BNOC oil paid for in 1980–81 -573 -473 New total -92 -70 The figures for individual transactions are on a net basis. As I explained in my reply to the hon. Member on 18 January—[Vol. 16, c. 78.]—gross receipts for these transactions are not available on a consistent basis. The total of £48 million referred to before is the sum of a series of net receipts, and is only gross in the sense that it is calculated before taking account of offsets not included in the top half of the table, such as the effect of delivery in 1981–82 of BNOC oil paid for in 1980–81. In 1979–80 there were no such offsets. In 1980–81, total net receipts were £365 million cash, equivalent to £301 million in 1979–80 outturn prices. Before allowing for offsets totalling £49 million—£41 million in 1979–80 outturn prices—the figure was £405 million—£342 million in 1979–80 outturn prices.