§ Mr. Maurice Macmillanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment at what level his Department estimates the present take-up of rate rebates; whether each local authority produces such estimates; and whether, according to the information available to him, there is any significant variation between regions in the take-up rate.
§ Mr. ShoreAs I announced on 5 December in an answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Swindon (Mr. Stoddart), 2.7 million people in England and Wales received rate rebates during the year ended 31 March 1978.—[Vol. 959, c. 644–5.] We estimate from the family expenditure survey data that 3.85 million people in the two countries were eligible for rebates, which implies a national take-up rate of about 70 per cent.
Lists of the numbers receiving rebates in 1977–78 in each rating authority were placed in the Library on 5 December. But the sample on which the family expenditure survey is based is not large enough to provide a reliable breakdown of the take-up rate by rating authority or by region. I am not aware that any local authority has produced its own estimate of take-up.