HC Deb 28 March 1973 vol 853 cc1305-6
33. Mr. Hardy

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the average price of a new house at the latest available date and two years earlier than that date.

Mr. Eyre

The average price of houses mortgaged with building societies in the fourth quarter of 1972 was £8,571 and for the fourth quarter of 1970 was £5,206.

Mr. Hardy

Those figures are very unsatisfactory. Does the Minister agree that the average weekly expenditure now incurred on purchasing and maintaining just an ordinary house now exceeds the average weekly wage of many millions of workers? Does the Minister further agree that the situation is likely to deteriorate after the local elections, when interest rates rise to 10 per cent?

Mr. Eyre

No. The hon. Gentleman will appreciate that the building society figures show that first-time purchasers and young borrowers are holding their own. Not only that, the number of mortgages granted to borrowers with incomes up to the average industrial manual worker's earnings, comparing 1970 with 1972, went up from 114,000 to 147,000.

Mr. Gower

Will my hon. Friend consider having conversations with the building societies and the Building Societies Association and indicating to them that it might be undesirable for them to impose a higher rate for new borrowers, which would include a large number of younger applicants?

Mr. Eyre

I fully understand my hon. Friend's anxieties. However, as I pointed out earlier, the building society meeting to which the Question relates will not take place until 13th April.

Mr. Crosland

Ministers have shown their power to persuade the building societies to postpone their rate increase until the day after the county elections; could they not persuade the societies to postpone it rather longer?

Mr. Eyre

I must tell the right hon. Gentleman that the date of the meeting was fixed by the Building Societies Association.