asked the Paymaster General what steps his Department is taking to promote an increase in the supply of low to medium-cost hotel accommodation in London.

My Department is supporting the initiatives being taken by the English Tourist Board, British Tourist Authority and London Tourist Board to follow up the recommendations in the consultancy study which they commissioned last year on "London's Tourist Accommodation in the 1990s". The English Tourist Board is involved in discussions with hotel operators and financial institutions to encourage them to take up opportunities to develop less expensive types of hotel accommodation in London, particularly in non-central areas. In addition, the London tourism forum is actively considering the need for additional hotel capacity in London and the importance of making adequate provision for this in the planning policies of London boroughs.

asked the Paymaster General what is his Department's estimate of the shortfall in hotel accommodation in the low to medium price bracket in London.

A consultant's report commissioned last year by the English Tourist Board, British Tourist Authority and other sponsors has suggested that while there is no evidence of a current shortage of tourist accommodation in London, there could be a potential overall shortfall of 16,000 to 28,000 rooms by the early 1990s. The ETB estimates that a fairly high proportion of these could be in the low and medium price range.

asked the Paymaster General what discussions he has had with (a) the British Tourist Authority, (b) the English Tourist Board and (c) the London Visitors' Convention Bureau on the lack of budget class hotels in the capital.

Officials of my Department are in regular contact with all these boards about the measures they are taking to encourage an increase in the supply of London's hotel accommodation so that it is capable of meeting the full range of future tourist demand, including that for low and medium price hotel rooms.

asked the Paymaster General what information he has as to how many beds in (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four and (e) five star hotels are now available in the central London areas and as to how this compares with five and 10 years ago.

Neither the English Tourist Board nor the London Tourist Board keeps comprehensive information on the numbers or grades of hotel bedrooms in different areas of London. The information requested is therefore not available.