§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the rate of open-land take (as defined in Professor Coleman's studies) in Berkshire and Cleveland respectively.
The Minister of State, Department of the Environment (The Earl of Caithness)There are no recent figures for rate of open-land take by county. However, a new source of land use change statistics for England is being developed by the Department of the Environment in association with the Ordnance Survey. Results recorded by Ordnance Survey for 1985 and 1986 of the net transfer of land from rural uses which are broadly comparable with Professor Coleman's "farmland, vegetation and other cover" use categories are available at regional level only. The annual transfers recorded for the South East region, outside Greater London, averaged 1,660 hectares, or 0.06 per cent. of the total land area, over the two-year period. The corresponding average for the Northern region is: 370 hectares (or 0.02 per cent. of the total area) for each of the two years recorded.