§ Mr. Chichester-Clarkasked the Secretary of State for the Environment by how much building costs rose, without being adjusted for productivity and output, in the year 1971 compared with 1970; and whether the rate of increase changed in the last quarter of 1971 compared with 256W the average rate of increase in each of the first three quarters.
§ Mr. AmeryIt is provisionally estimated that there was a 10 per cent. increase in 1971 in building costs, unadjusted for productivity and output: the corresponding increase in 1970 was 11 per cent. For the fourth quarter of 1971, costs increased by 1 per cent.; this compares with a quarterly average increase of about 4 per cent. for the first half of 1971, and 0.5 per cent. increase for the third quarter of that year.