§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many hectares of land in Wales have become urbanised so far this year; if he will give comparable figures for 1989, 1990 and 1991; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. David HuntA limited amount of information on land-use change is provided by statistics derived from records compiled by Ordnance Survey during the course of its map revision work. A large proportion of changes of use are not collected until some time after the year of470W change, resulting in substantial time lags before there are adequate data to estimate total change occurring during a particular year. The latest available data suggest that between 1985–87, the average recorded net change of land from rural to urban use in Wales was 560 hectares per year. Information for later years is not available.