HC Deb 17 March 1978 vol 946 cc410-1W
Mr. Wakeham

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has made any estimates of the cost to the Exchequer of allowing tax relief on the costs of travel to work; and what he estimates would be the cost of allowing relief on expenses over £100 per taxpayer up to a maximum of £250 per taxpayer.

Mr. Robert Sheldon,

pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 13th March 1978; Vol. 946, c. 40], gave the following answer:

I regret that the information on which to base satisfactory estimates is not available, but the cost would be substantiated. The current cost, for example, if all employees received relief on average expenses of £100 per year would exceed £750 million. If the relief were limited to expenses over £100 per year up to a maximum of £250, the cost might lie in the range of £200–300 million.