asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish a comparison of the amount of agricultural land in percentage terms available per head of population in the United Kingdom and with each other European Economic Community country for each of the last 10 years; and what is the likely trend in loss of agricultural land per head of population over the next five years.
Information in index form for 1970 to 1978 is given in the table. It is not possible to forecast reliably trends in agricultural land per head of population over the next five years since losses of land will be dependent on factors such as economic growth, urban development and population changes, which it is not possible to predict accurately.
INDICES SHOWING COMPARISONS OF AGRICULTURAL LAND PER HEAD IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND OTHER EEC COUNTRIES, 1970–78. | ||||||||||||
| United Kingdom | West Germany | France | Italy | Netherlands | Belgium | Luxembourg | Ireland | Denmark | ||||
| 1970 | … | … | … | 100 | 66 | 191 | 107 | 50 | 49 | 117 | 478 | 177 |
| 1971 | … | … | … | 100 | 65 | 188 | 97 | 48 | 48 | 115 | 477 | 175 |
| 1972 | … | … | … | 100 | 65 | 187 | 96 | 47 | 48 | 114 | 475 | 176 |
| 1973 | … | … | … | 100 | 65 | 186 | 95 | 47 | 48 | 113 | 474 | 178 |
| 1974 | … | … | … | 100 | 65 | 185 | 94 | 46 | 48 | 110 | 470 | 175 |
| 1975 | … | … | … | 100 | 65 | 184 | 94 | 46 | 47 | 111 | 460 | 175 |
| 1976 | … | … | … | 100 | 65 | 184 | 94 | 46 | 47 | 111 | na | 175 |
| 1977 | … | … | … | 100 | 65 | 184 | 94 | 45 | 47 | 113 | na | 175 |
| 1978 | … | … | … | 100 | 65 | 184 | 94 | 45 | 46 | 111 | na | na |
Note:
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| For each year the amount of agricultural land per head in the other eight member States is expressed as a percentage of the figure for the United Kingdom. | ||||||||||||
Source:
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| SOEC statistics. | ||||||||||||