§ Mr. Bowen Wellsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the level of support from the overseas aid programme for human settlement projects over the last five years; what projects are currently being supported; and which British companies have benefited from contracts in connection with these.
§ Mr. RaisonThe information requested, covering housing and land settlement projects, is as follows:
Year Housing £000 Land settlement £000 1979 2,931 1,303 1980 2,269 929 1981 49 2,130 1982 9,159 4,777 1983 5,313 2,981 Note: Projects in the dependencies or recently independent countries in the Caribbean and Pacific are not included in these figures as the detailed statistical data are not readily available.
Projects currently being supported are as follows:
Country Project India Housing and Urban development Malawi Rural housing Solomon Islands Housing development through the Commonwealth Development Corporation Botswana Low cost housing Kenya Land purchase Swaziland Land purchase Zimbabwe Land resettlement Information is not available about British companies benefiting from contracts under these projects; however, in both categories, the bulk of expenditure covers local costs where British companies are not usually involved.