§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 10 December 1992,Official Report, column 777, if he will publish figures for the percentage change in regional house prices to earnings ratios in each region between the third quarter of 1992 and the third quarter of 1991.
§ Mr. Nelson[holding answer 26 January 1993]: Information on average earnings is collected each April for both Great Britain and Northern Ireland through the new earnings survey. Until April 1992, quarterly data were not available. Since then, quarterly estimates for Great Britain have been produced by projecting the results of the April survey by the monthly average earnings index (AEI). There are no quarterly estimates for Northern Ireland because the AEI covers Great Britain only. The following table therefore only shows regional figures for the third quarter of 1992. For Great Britain as a whole, the average earnings to house price ratio was 3.89, some 9 per cent. lower than in the third quarter of 1991.
Average house price to earnings ratio third quarter 1992 Region Great Britain 3.89 North 3.24 Yorkshire and Humberside 3.72 East Midlands 3.86 East Anglia 3.92 South East Greater London 3.79 Rest of South East 4.49 South West 4.28 West Midlands 3.93 North West 3.84 England 3.95 Wales 3.44 Scotland 3.43