asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if his estimate of an annual increase of 1,685 acres in land classified as derelict in England is net or gross.

The estimated annual increase of 1,685 acres in land classified as derelict between 1964 and 1970 is a net figure taking into account the amount restored during the period. The increase is largely due to new survey work by local authorities and substantial railway and colliery closures which result in land which has been despoiled in the past being counted in the survey for the first time. The figures are not a measure of the creation of new dereliction, but of an increase in the acreage now ripe for reclamation.