§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what resources are currently being devoted to securing the disposal or the bringing into use of land that is currently registered.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneFifty three staff of various grades are engaged, mainly part time, in land register work. Their land register responsibilities include encouraging landowning bodies to bring land into use or to dispose of it.
§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Mid Staffordshire on 15 January, Official Report, column 96, if he will indicate the nature and costs of the additional resources which would be required to secure the disposal of publicly owned unused and under-used land of between half an acre and one acre.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneAdditional staff would be needed within my Department and probably by the public bodies whose land is registrable. The size of the increase would depend on the number of sites in this category; this is likely to be substantial.
§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps he has taken to satisfy himself that all publicly-owned unused and under-used land eligible for inclusion in the public land registers is so registered.
194W
§ Mr. MacfarlaneAll public bodies listed in schedule 16 to the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 have been requested to register their holdings of unused and under-used land, in accordance with guidelines set out by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State. Every six months such bodies are asked to up-date their entries in the register. In addition, where we have reason to believe that a particular site ought to be entered in the register, the matter is taken up with the public body concerned.
§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many times and in what circumstances he has used his powers under the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 to compel authorities to dispose of publicly owned unused and under-used land.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneUnder the powers conferred upon him by section 98 of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 my right hon. Friend has directed four local authorities to take steps for the disposal of their interest in four specific plots of land entered on the land register.
We are currently considering possible sites where notices under section 99 of the Act (notifying the authority concerned of a proposal to make a direction under section 98 and of its proposed contents), might be appropriate.
§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he is satisfied with the rate of progress of sales of unused and under-used publicly owned land; and if he will make a statement.
195W
§ Mr. MacfarlaneBetween the time when the registers were established and 30 April 1985 about 5,729 hectares of land have been removed by reason of their disposal by the public sector. In the same period, a further 2,386 hectares have been removed because the land has been brought hack into full use. I am keen to ensure that progress in bringing back into use unused or under-used land is maintained.
§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he has on the extent to which local authorities are making public land registers available to the general public; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneSection 96 of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 requires district councils to make a copy of the land registers available for public inspection at their principal offices at all reasonable hours. Authorities generally are complying with this requirement.
§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report on an authority by authority basis the gross proceeds of sales of publicly-owned unused and under-used land marketed specifically through the media of the public land registers.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneThis information is not kept centrally.
§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report on an authority by authority basis, the number of sales of publicly-owned unused and under-used land brought to fruition specifically as a result of the establishment of the public land registers for each year to the latest available date.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneThis information is not available: it cannot be established how much of the 5,729 hectares of registered land which has been disposed of has been sold as a result of the establishment of the land registers.