§ Mr. StevensonTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average gross weekly income was in(a) the North Staffordshire travel-to-work area and (b) Stoke-on-Trent for the last year for which data are available. [99878]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. George Stevenson, dated 29 November 1999:
As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary question on average gross weekly income for the North Staffordshire travel-to-work area (TTWA) and Stoke-on-Trent.Estimates of average gross income data for North Staffordshire TTWA and for Stoke-on-Trent, as discrete areas, are not available. The lowest regional breakdown of household income data published by the ONS is for annual gross household income per head by county. The latest published figures are for 1995 and were published in Table 9 of the article Regional Accounts 1995: part 2 in Economic Trends no. 535, June 1998. This publication is available in the House of Commons Library. Sub-regional estimates of household income in the future will be based on different geographies, owing largely to the reorganisation of local government throughout Great Britain. The first estimates on this basis will be published in the first half of 2000, and will include data for more recent years.The county figures available relate to the income of the household sector, as defined for the purposes of national and regional accounts. In addition to private households, this includes charities, voluntary and other non-profit organisations, and quasi-corporations.The published figures are normally presented in terms of total annual household income per head of population. The 1995 average household income per head estimate for the county of Staffordshire, converted to a weekly average, was £186.