§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list land belonging to his Department recorded on the land registers as being vacant, dormant or derelict, specifying the size of each site, its location, and the reasons for its being under-utilised.
§ Mr. John PattenMy right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment is responsible for compiling and maintaining registers of unused and insufficiently used land held by public bodies and their subsidiaries. Health authorities in England participate in this register but details of land included in the register are not held centrally. The Department collects statistics annually relating to all surplus land over 1 acre (that is whether or not it falls to be included on the register) and at 31 March 1983 these showed surplus land as follows:
Region Acres Northern 29.19 Yorkshire 826.74 Trent 689.69 East Anglian 47.17 North-West Thames 146.32 North-East Thames 246.96 South-East Thames 343.00 South-West Thames 370.62 Wessex 249.37 Oxford 182.63 South-Western 414.57 West Midlands 556.25 Mersey 200.93 North-Western 93.03 Others 29.50 England 4,425.97 These figures do not include properties of under 1 acre in size.