asked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will list the local authorities which have applied to him in the current financial year for land acquisitions under the Community Land Scheme of a planning or social nature, as outlined in paragraph 14 of GNLA/12, giving the total bid in each case and the amount which he has approved.

The information for county areas is contained in the following tables. Some of the proposals are still under consideration; a number are not expected to require loan sanction until the next financial year.surplus accounts to him for (

The total level of expenditure and deficit in 1975–76 was £1·7 million. There was no income and no surplus. For 1976–77, the total levels of expenditure, income, deficits and surplus, for the authorities listed as follows, were respectively £19·0 million, £0·8 million, £18·2 million, and nil.

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether, pursuant to the replies by the hon. Member for Greenwich (Mr. Barnett) on 15th February and 27th June, he will now indicate how many local authorities have failed to reduce their staffing and administration costs to 1976–77 levels in respect of the Community Land Scheme, contrary to paragraph 5 of GNLA /12; what special action he has taken to achieve compliance; and what monitoring activity he envisages to ensure his policy is carried out.

My Department's regional offices have been instructed to issue loan sanctions for these costs only where they are satisfied that they are reasonable in all the circumstances. In the light of recent experience I would expect the overall figures for 1977–78 to be of the same order as for last year.

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) how many of the 729·6 acres acquired by local authorities under the Community Land Act 1975 in 1976–77 for industry have subsequently been resold to developers, or let directly to clients; what are the total receipts by way of premium and rental income; and by how much the £5·4 million acquisition cost exceeds the receipts;(2) how many of the 832·4 acres acquired by local authorities under the Community Land Act 1975 in 1976–77 have subsequently been resold to private developers; and by how much the £6·25 million acquisition cost exceeds the receipts.(3) how many of the nine acres acquired by local authorities under the Community Land Act 1975 in 1976–77 for commercial purposes have subsequently been resold to private developers; or let directly to clients; what are the total receipts by way of premium and rental income; and by how much the £0·44 million acquisition cost exceeds the receipts.

Information on disposals in 1976–77 is as follows. Details of disposals in the current financial year are not yet available.

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether, pursuant to the reply of the hon. Member for Greenwich (Mr. Barnett) on 7th July, he is now able to say how much of the £5 million benefit to local authorities of buying land net of development land tax in 1976–77 was accounted for by land bought under the Community Land Scheme.

Final figures are not yet available but are expected to show a benefit of the order of £2½ million to authorities in England.

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment how much land has been acquired by local authorities (a) for housing, (b) for commercial development and (c) for industrial development since the beginning of the current financial year; and what have been the acquisition costs in each case, and any income from re-sale.

It is too early to provide information about land acquired and disposed of by authorities during the current financial year.

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) whether, in view of the fact that only £12.25 million of the £24.4 million in loan sanctions granted in 1976–77 to local authorities for land acquisition under the Community Land Scheme was actually spent, he will indicate for each county council what amount of the unused proportion at the end of the 1976–77 financial year they have sought to claim again in the current financial year; and what approval he has given in each case;(2) whether he will set out in tabular form for each county authority the loan sanction (

The following table shows how much loan sanction has been issued so far this financial year to county areas for the purchase of land. It is too early to give figures for purchases made. No central record is kept of the number of wholly new projects.

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether, pursuant to paragraph 7 of GNLA /14, he will indicate how many of the schemes of land acquisition under the Community Land Act 1975 have produced higher infrastructure costs than previously envisaged; what is the total extra sum sought in local sanction by local authorities to cover this gap; by how much it exceeds the total of previous sanctions; and how many local authorities are involved.

As GNLA 14 indicated, the impression was that this was a growing number. It was not however thought to be a large one, and I do not think that the time and resources involved in quantifying it more precisely would be justified.

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will give, for each county council, the total number of acres acquired, indicating the intended use in each case, to date, under the Community Land Act 1975 how many have been subsequently resold or relet; and whether he will break down each figure for: (a) 1976–77 and (b) the current financial year.

The following tables give provisional figures of land acquired and disposed of during 1976–77 for each