asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will investigate schemes whereby any agricultural land used for other purposes can be replaced by reclaimed land.
There is only limited scope for such replacement. The reclamation of land for agricultural use in hill and upland areas is encouraged by assistance provided under the Farm Capital Grant (Scotland) Scheme and for crofters under the Crofting Counties Agricultural Grants (Scotland) Scheme. The loss of production from agricultural land taken for other uses is mainly offset by improvement of land remaining in agriculture and various grants are available for this purpose. In addition, grants are available to local authorities under the Local Employment Act 1972 towards the net cost of approved schemes to enable derelict land to be brought into use: in rural areas, such rehabilitated land is usually devoted to agricultural use.
asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what acreage of agricultural land has been converted annually into industrial use since 1970; what categories of agricultural land have been affected; and, in view of the White Paper "Food from our own Resources", what steps he is taking to minimise this loss of agricultural land.
Figures are not available for the amount of agricultural land taken annually for industrial use alone, but since 1970 the net loss of agricultural land for housing, industrial and commercial development and roads has been as follows:
| acres | |
| 1970–71 | 3,827 |
| 1971–72 | 3,447 |
| 1972–73 | 2,224 |
| 1973–74 | 2,888 |