§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much money has been disbursed each year since 1972 by way of loans and grants from public funds to farmers for the reclamation of land for agricultural purposes; and what was the acreage of land so reclaimed.
§ Mrs. FennerNo loans are made for this purpose and I regret that we do not keep separate statistics of grant paid for land reclamation alone or of the acreage reclaimed. The amount of grant paid in the United Kingdom for land clearance and reclamation in each of the years 1979 to 1983 is as follows. Figures for the years 1972 to 1978 are not available and for 1984 will be available later.
479W
£ million 1979 1.3 1980 2.0
£ million 1981 2.0 1982 3.2 1983 3.5