§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is his estimate of the average value of farm buildings and land in England and Wales; and what evaluation he has made of the correlation between the value of land and the level of farm subsidies over the past 20 years. [29458]
§ Mr. MorleyThe average price of all agricultural property sales notified to the Inland Revenue in the three months ended June 1997 (the latest period available) was £4,515 per hectare in England and £4,303 per hectare in Wales. These averages will be affected by the prevailing market conditions and the location and quality of the land sold in the period.
There is evidence to suggest that support for agriculture has, to some degree, been capitalised into the value of land.