§ Mr. Eldon Griffithsasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the average level of interest paid by home buyers in each quarter of the years 1976, 1977 and 1978 to date.
§ Mr. Armstrong:Average gross mortgage interest repayments per building society mortgage account can only be estimated on an annual basis. In 1976
Grant per head Rate income per head Year on year rate income per head Percentage increase in general index of retail prices £ £ 1974–75 … … 80.94 66.52 — — 1975–76 … … 111.86 81.21 22.08 24.6 1976–77 … … 118.15 88.55 9.04 15.3 1977–78 … … 117.35 98.34 11.06 14.0 1978–79 … … 124.35 114.33 16.26 Not calculable An increase order has yet to be approved by Parliament in respect of 1978–79 grant.
Because of changes in local authority areas in the 1974 local government reorganisation, comparable figures for 1973-74 are not available.
146Winterest repayments totalled £2,211 million and at the end of the year there were approximately 4,609,000 mortgage accounts; in 1977 the equivalent figures were £2,635 million and 4,836,000 respectively. This suggests that average interest repayments per mortgage account were in the region of £480 in 1976 and £550 in 1977. The equivalent figure for 1978 is likely to be similar to that in 1977. The cost to mortgagors of repayments of interest will normally be reduced by tax relief.