§ Mr. Pawseyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to the reply to the question of the hon. Member for Rugby on 18 October, what are the main difficulties in compiling statistics on new lettings of agricultural land; and if he is in a position to provide any estimate of the current level of new lettings.
§ Mr. Peter Walker:New lettings of tenanted land are not reported to the Ministry. An indication can, however, be obtained from the Ministry's annual rent inquiries, copies of which are available in the Library. Each inquiry covers a sample of about a third of tenanted land in England, and shows the number of farms in the sample with a rent change which were let to new tenants. Because this sample is not random, the total number of new lettings cannot be derived accurately from these figures.