Colonel NEWMANasked the Minister of Labour whether he is aware that for large sections of the community any increase in rent is allowed for in the cost-of-living figure on which their wages or salaries are based, thereby making the cost of living higher for those other sections of the community whose assessments for Income Tax on their houses is about to be increased with no compensating rise in salary or income; and is it his intention to remove rent from among the items on which the cost-of-living index is based?
§ Sir M. BARLOWThe official index figures are designed to indicate the average increase in the cost of maintaining unchanged the pre-War standard of living of working-class families, and the exclusion of so important an item as rent would seriously impair the validity of the statistics for this purpose. I do not know whether the hon. Member realises that as the percentage increase in rents is less than the general average for other items, the effect of excluding rent would be to raise the final index figure.