§ 20. Mr. Peter BradleyTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the proportion of income spent on travel by low income groups in(a) urban and (b) rural areas; and if he will estimate the percentage of that expenditure which was accounted for by the fuel duty escalator since its introduction. [91113]
§ Ms HewittThe latest available data on household spending patterns by gross income decile group are published in tables 1.1 to 1.3 of Family Spending 1997–98. For those households in the lowest gross income decile, approximately 12 per cent. of gross income was spent on motoring, fares and other travel costs. Approximately 0.5 of a per cent. of gross income was spent on the amount of fuel duty attributable to the fuel duty escalator. Separate estimates for urban and rural areas are not available.