§ Mr. Meacherasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of households own, respectively, their own home, other real estate, a farm, business or professional practice, or a car; what percentage own any liquid assets, corporate stock, and life assurance; and what are the comparable figures, according to available international information, for the United States of America, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Sweden.
§ Mr. NottIn Great Britain, in 1972, 47 per cent. of private households were in owner-occupied homes and 55 per cent. had regular use of one or more cars. There is no information on the percentage of households owning real estate, a farm, business, professional practice, liquid assets, corporate stock or life assurance.
However the following information is available which bears on some of these points:
(a) In Great Britain in 1971, 0.9 per cent. of households were resident in owner-occupied agricultural holdings.
(b) In the tax year 1969–70, 9.4 per cent. of all tax units in the United
134Wbut not paid over are excluded from the table.
Kingdom received dividends or interest (including interest on bonds) which were taxed at source.
(c) In 1972, 85 per cent. of United Kingdom households incurred expenditure on life assurance and pension fund contributions.
International comparisons are available only in respect of owner-occupier households. These are given below:
PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLDS WHO ARE OWNER OCCUPIERS Country Year Percentage U.S.A. 1970 62.9 Sweden 1965 35.5 Japan 1970 58.2 Italy 1961 45.8 Germany (Federal Republic) 1968 34.3 France 1968 43.3 Comparisons should be made with caution due to differences in timing, census or survey definitions and coverage.