§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what is Her Majesty's Government's policy towards encouraging the use of catalysts to convert toxic exhaust gases into innocuous substances;
(2) what is Her Majesty's Government's policy towards the redesign of vehicle engines to promote concurrently fuel economy and clean emissions.
§ Mrs. ChalkerI have been asked to reply.
431WVehicle manufacturers are now taking steps to conform with Community directive 83/353/EEC which will substantially lower pollution from petrol engined vehicles over the next few years, at a small cost in terms of fuel economy. We welcome the efforts of United Kingdom manufacturers to develop more fuel efficient engines using new technology which, I understand, will enable further reductions in pollution to be made in the longer term. The catalytic control devices now available are expensive, would worsen fuel economy and add about £2,000 million per year to United Kingdom motoring expenditure; such expenditure is not justified to deal with emissions from petrol engined vehicles in the United Kingdom. Other changes are necessary to reduce smoke from diesel engined vehicles, and we shall be making proposals on this later this year.
Metropolitan county council Amount of derelict land justifying reclamation as at 1 April 1982 (hectares) Percentage change from the 1974 derelict land survey Amount of derelict land restored between 1 April 1974 and 1 April 1982 (hectares) Tyne and Wear 1,458 +14 834 Greater Manchester 3,821 +20 1,727 Merseyside 1,261 +176 390 South Yorkshire 995 -28 871 West Yorkshire 2,349 -9 1,104 West Midlands 1,861 +23 1,000 Greater London 1,639 +425 422