§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Environment by how much the costs of living in a private house have risen over the past year; how this compares with the cost of living in a council house; and if he will give the similar figures for each of the past four years.
§ Mr. StanleyInformation is not yet available for all housing costs in the past year. Information about rents, rates, and tenants' expenditure on repairs, maintenance and decoration incurred in 1979 by local authority tenants and by tenants renting from private landlords is published in table 6 of Family Expenditure Survey 1979, where information about owner-occupier's expenditure on rates, repairs, maintenance and decoration is also to be found. Corresponding information for 1978 and earlier years was published in previous issues of the Family Expenditure Survey report. Information about average gross mortgage repayments in 1978, extracted by the Department of the Environment from the Family Expenditure Survey, was published in "Housing and Construction Statistics 1969–79", table 136. Corresponding information for earlier years was published in previous issues of "Housing and Construction Statistics".