HC Deb 30 January 2003 vol 398 cc993-4W
Mr. Stephen O'Brien

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his Department's plans for liberalisation of financial markets in the European Union, as set out in the Government's White Paper on European economic reform, "Realising Europe's Potential: Economic Reform in Europe", February 2002, depend on(a) wider membership of European economic and monetary union among all EU states and (b) British membership of EMU. [94394]

Ruth Kelly

Liberalisation of financial markets does not depend on membership of European economic and monetary union.

Only some of the data requested are available because earnings data at local authority level cannot easily be obtained within a reasonable time period.

The house price to earnings ratio has been determined from 1990 to 2001 (a) for England and (b) for each of the Government office regions. It is important to note that the average earnings used to produce this table are based on the region where the individual worked—which is not necessarily the region in which they lived. Comparisons with house prices within the same region may therefore be inappropriate.