§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will introduce a scheme of incentives and penalties to restrain local and public authorities from hoarding land;
(2) if he will introduce new proposals to persuade owners of public land which is vacant or under-utilised to sell or bring into use their sites.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneThe Government's measures taken in recent years to control public expenditure have given public bodies a strong incentive to sell surplus land, and many have set up disposal programmes as a result. The land register provisions of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 give adequate powers to deal with individual sites which are retained without good reason.
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§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will take steps to discourage development of farmland and countryside and to direct the development to the vacant land to be found in inner cities.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneIt is already the Government's policy to protect agricultural land, and land of a higher agricultural quality will not be released for development where land of a lower quality could reasonably be used instead. The Government are also vigorously pursuing a number of initiatives designed to encourage the re-use of vacant or under-used land in urban areas. The revised draft circulars on "Green Belt" and "Land for Housing" set out the Government's views on appropriate development in the countryside. The finalised circulars will provide guidance for local authorities.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will increase the number of disposal orders he makes relating to the areas of under-utilised or vacant land recorded on the registers;
(2) how many disposal orders under section 98 of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 have been issued in respect of land entered on the land registers in each of the past three years.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneNo direction requiring the disposal of a land register site has yet been made. My right hon. Friend will consider making directions wherever the circumstances warrant it.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will now seek to include privately owned vacant, derelict, dormant and under-utilised land on the land registers.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneThe powers in part X of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 extend only to land owned by the bodies mentioned in schedule 16 to the Act. There are no plans for amending legislation.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many acres of vacant and under-utilised land on the land registers are Crown land; and what is the size of each site and its location.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneSeven thousand six hundred and forty acres. The size and location of each site are given on its register entry together with other details. A list could be compiled only at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will introduce measures to compel owners of public vacant and under-utilised sites included in the land registers to offer by way of a public sale a minimum percentage of their holdings each year.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneI refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Reading, West (Mr. Durant) on 7 March, at column 599.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) how many acres of vacant or under-utilised land have been disposed of by (a) each local authority, (b) each Government Department, (c) each statutory undertaker and public utility, (d) each nationalised industry, (e) the Crown and (f) in total, since the establishment of the land registers;
(2) how many acres of vacant or under-utilised land have been brought into use by (a) each local authority, (b) each Government Department, (c) each statutory 474W undertaker and public utility, (d) each nationalised industry, (e) the Crown and (f) in total since the establishment of the land registers;
(3) how many acres of vacant and under-utilised land on the land registers belong to (a) each local authority, (b) each Government Department and (c) each statutory undertaker and public utility.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneThe information available is set out in the table. The land holdings of individual local authorities, which may own land outside their own areas, are not currently identifiable from the statistical returns.
Land Registers in England: Acreages as at 1 January 1984 Current holdings Land removed: disposed of brought into use Local authorities Counties and GLC 16,028 1,523 1,060 Districts and London boroughs 48,470 3,433 2,574 Government departments and other Crown bodies Department of the Environment 366 123 2 Department of Energy 311 98 32 Ministry of Defence 2,572 931 86 Department of Health and Social Security (Including National Health Service land) 4,279 41 2 Department of Trade and Industry 12 — — Department of Transport 77 — — Other Crown bodies 23 — — Nationalised industries and statutory undertakers British Rail 14,843 1,001 235 British Gas Corporation 1,767 93 14 National Coal Board 2,279 29 16 Associated British Ports 377 — — Other port authorities 2,853 126 39 British Waterways Board 97 13 — Electricity Boards 3,633 447 36 Water Authorities 2,528 491 25 British Steel Corporation 1,723 594 43 British Shipbuilders 151 — 2 Post Office 7 5 13 British Telecom 410 48 15 Other nationalised industries and statutory undertakers 24 1 — Other bodies New town development corporations and Commission for the New Towns 8,574 270 82 Urban Development Corporations 741 8 — Housing Corporation 22 40 — TOTAL 112,167 9,315 4,276
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will list the categories and number of acres of open countryside lost in each of the past five years to urban sprawl and development;
(2) if he will list the categories and number of acres of agricultural land lost in each of the past five years to urban sprawl and development.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneSuch statistics are available only on the transfer of farmland to development and only for all 475W forms of development combined. They are obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's annual agricultural census, but are considered too unreliable to quote for single years. The average annual transfer of agricultural land to urban, industrial—including mineral workings—and recreational uses in England for the five-year period ending June 1981, the last year for which statistics are available, is estimated to be 17,600 acres. No breakdown of the types of agricultural land involved in these transfers is available.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) how many acres of public land currently on the land registers could be utilised only after a change in zoning use;
(2) how many acres of public land currently on the land registers could be utilised only after changes in the structure plans;
(3) how many acres of public land currently on the land registers can be utilised only after changes in the district plans.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneThis information could be obtained only at disproportionate expense.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a table showing how many applications for the purchase of vacant public land on the land registers by private companies and individuals have been received in each of the past five years; and of these (a) how many were accepted and (b) how many were rejected.
§ Mr. MacfarlanePublic land entered on the land registers remains in the ownership of the public bodies concerned, to whom applications to buy the land should therefore be addressed. The information requested is not centrally available.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will include on the land registers the number of acres of agricultural land and open countryside in each district which are subjected to change of use.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneMy right hon. Friend has power only to enter on land registers details of land which in his opinion is not being used or not being sufficiently used for performing the functions or carrying on the undertaking of the public body which owns it. Rural land which fits this description is already liable to be registered, but otherwise there is not power to register it.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress has been made recently in encouraging local authorities to dispose of vacant land.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneThe Department maintains a continuing dialogue with local authorities over the prospects for disposal or re-use of registered sites with development potential. Since the land registers were published some 5,000 acres of local authority land have been removed because the land has been disposed of and over 3,600 acres because the land has been brought into use out of a total for all public bodies of nearly 14,000 acres. In addition, about 36,000 registered sites are understood to be currently available for disposal.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will review the criteria by which vacant land owned by the Government is valued for sale purposes.
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§ Mr. MacfarlaneSurplus Crown land is offered for sale at its estimated market value in order to secure he full benefit of its disposal for the taxpayer. I see no need for a review.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will introduce legislation to alter the requirement by which public bodies are required to add the historical value to the market value of vacant land in their ownership.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneI am aware of no such requirement.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the estimated costs of including on the registers of public land sites of under one acre; and whether he will estimate the number of sites of under one acre which are currently vacant, dormant, derelict or under utilised.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneThe number of sites of less than an acre which fall within the specified categories, and accordingly the costs of including them on the land registers, cannot be reliably estimated without undertaking a survey. At the moment it is preferable for the resources which this would require to be devoted to securing the disposal or use of the land currently registered.