§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what effect the imputation of a rental value on agricultural land in calculating farm income has had on the figures showing the average net farm income per dairy farm; and if he will publish the figures of such income in each of the years 1979–80 to 1982–83 with and without an imputed rent.
§ Mr. MacGregorA rental value is imputed in calculating net farm income per farm in the farm management survey only in respect of owner-occupied land so as to put the accounts of all farms in the survey on a consistent basis. The imputed rents are estimates made farm by farm of the rent which a tenant of a similar farm in similar circumstances would pay. In Northern Ireland they are assessed in relation to estimated sale value. The effect on average net farm income of dairy farms, as for other types of farm, depends on whether the imputed rent on the owner-occupied land on the sample farms exceeds or falls short of the costs of land ownership that would be chargeable if the account were made up on an owner-occupied basis. Information about the average size and direction of this effect is not available, and I regret therefore that the comparative series asked for cannot be supplied.