§ Mr. Hardyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much public money has been spent in grants towards the physical improvement of farms since 1947, in the past 20 and in the past 10 years in both cash terms and at 1982 values.
§ Mrs. FennerI regret that the information requested is not available for the full period from 1947. For the 20 years ending March 1982 the amount which was paid in grants for purposes which can be broadly described as "the physical improvement of farms" was about £1,522 million. For the 10-year period the corresponding figure was about £1,172 million.
These figures are in cash terms and are not available in 1982 prices. They are only approximations because some of the schemes covered items other than farm improvements and it is no longer possible to separate the relevant expenditure from the irrelevant.