§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the annual cost to central and local government of preparing, publishing and updating the public registers of under-used land; how many staff have been employed on this work; and what is the additional number of acres which have been added to the registers, in each of the last five years.
1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 Area added (gross) 7,700 10,800 6,300 7,700 4,800 Area removed 6,800 12,300 12,200 15,500 10,900 Area added (net) +900 -1,500 -5,900 -7,800 -6,100
§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many acres of under-used land currently on the public registers are in the ownership of(a) the water authorities and (b) the electricity boards; and how many acres have been removed from the registers following the privatisation of British Gas.
§ Mr. TrippierAt the end of January 1989, the registers of unused and under-used land owned by public bodies contained details of 2,243 acres of such land owned by water authorities and 2,938 acres owned by electricity boards.
Following the privatisation of the former British Gas Corporation, 1,456 acres of land owned by that body were removed from the registers.