§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) how many years it would take to get rid of the surplus vacant public sector land; and how much it would cost to run the register for that period if no extra land was added to the register;
(2) what is the regional breakdown of land on the surplus vacant public sector land register with no potential, low potential and moderate/high potential, on a percentage basis;
(3) how many acres of unused and underused land are at present in the ownership of British Rail, the urban development corporations, local authorities, government departments, the residuary bodies and British Coal;
(4) how many acres of unused and underused land have been entered onto and also removed from the surplus vacant public sector land register in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992.
§ Mr. BaldryThe Secretary of State's register of unused and underused land has for most purposes been superseded by registers maintained by each public sector owner and since 1989 has been maintained only in connection with requests to order the disposal of sites. The central register is therefore too out of date to be used as a basis for meaningful analysis.
The Department does not hold detailed information about the amount of land on the registers maintained by owners or the quality and development potential of individual sites. Nor can we make estimates of the costs incurred by owners in maintaining the registers.