HC Deb 04 April 1979 vol 965 cc936-7W
Mr. Peyton

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish figures for 1970, 1974 and 1978 for a married man with two children under the age of 11 years, earning average male manual earnings, showing the length of time after taking into account income tax liability and national insurance contributions, necessary to pay for each of the following items: weekly rent of a three-bedroomed council dwelling, mortgage repayment, interest and principal, on a newly-built three-bedroomed, semi-detached house, 3 lb of beef sirloin, 2 lb of fresh cod, 14 lb of potatoes, a standard large loaf, ½ lb of tea, a quart of silver top milk, 1 lb of butter, a dozen standard eggs, 1 lb of cheddar-type cheese, 1 lb of bacon, 5 cwt of high quality coal, five gallons of petrol, a weekly season ticket between Surbiton and London, postage of five letters, a telegram of 12 words, a gentleman's haircut, 20 cigarettes, a pint of beer and a bottle of whisky.

Mr. Harold Walker

For a married man with two children under the age of 11, with gross earnings (a) equal to the

Estimated number of minutes of work required to pay for item in
Items October 1970 October 1974 October 1978
Weekly rent of three-bedroom council dwelling 300 260 230
Weekly mortgage repayment of interest—net of tax relief at standard rate—and principal on a newly built three-bedroom semi-detached house 500 720 600
3 lbs of beef sirloin (boneless) 160 170 200
2 lbs of fresh cod fillets 52 69 75
14 lbs of potatoes (white) 29 31 23
1 standard loaf (28 ozs) (unwrapped/unsliced) 11 10 11
lb of tea (medium price) 20 13 18
2 pints of milk (silver top) 12 6 10
1 lb of butter 22 17 26
12 eggs (standard/size 4) 22 27 17
1 lb of Cheddar type cheese 23 28 28
1 lb of bacon (streaky smoked) 27 33 29
5 cwts of high quality coal 490 380 540
5 gallons of petrol (four star quality) 200 190 150
Weekly season ticket between Surbiton-Waterloo 190 170 230
Postage on five letters 11 14 15
Telegram of 12 words 30 53 65
20 cigarettes (filter tip) 31 23 22
1 pint of beer (bottled/canned) 17 16 16
1 bottle of whisky 350 210 170

Notes:

  1. (a) The earnings figures used are estimates of average gross weekly earnings for men aged 21 and over in all industries and services covered by the Department of Employment's regular October inquiry into earnings and hours of manual workers.
  2. (b) Net income has been calculated to include child benefit and child allowances in earlier years have been taken into account, following administrative changes in phasing-out child tax allowances and replacing the allowance with the direct payment of child benefit. Figures for 1970 and 1974, therefore, differ slightly from those given in previous answers.
  3. (c) The calculations involve a substantial degree of approximation. Moreover, no allowances have been made for changes in quality of the items over the period and the data should be interpreted accordingly. The estimates are shown rounded to two significant figures.
  4. (d) Information on haircuts has not been included in the above table since there are no comparable data available for the years covered in the reply.