§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what weight council house rents have in the retail prices index; and if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the change in the weight in each of the past 10 years, the movement in this index compared to the whole, and the implied amount spent on such rents in the current financial year.
§ Sir George Young[pursuant to his reply, 26 November 1982, c. 595]: A separate index for local authority rents is not published, but the weights and movements of the rent component and the movements of the retail prices index have been as follows:
Rent component weight (out of 1,000) per cent. increase in year to January of which, LA rent approx in rent component in Retail Prices Index 1972 71* † 6.7 8.2 1973 75* † 15.9 7.7 1974 73* 27 8.2 12.0 1975 30 23 3.2 19.9 1976 29 23 14.1 23.4 1977 31 24 15.1 16.6 1978 32 26 12.8 9.9 1979 32 26 9.4 9.3 1980 28 23 11.2 18.4 1981 30 27 22.7 13.0 1982 36 33 36.8 12.0 in year to October 1982: 12.3 6.8 * Included imputed rent for housing cost of owner occupiers.
† not available.
The weights are based on information obtained from the family expenditure survey and represent total rent payments by the households covered by the index, net of rent rebates and allowances, averaged over all index 209W households not only those 40 per cent. living in rented accommodation: supplementary benefit assistance with rents is treated as income and therefore does not affect the retail prices index. The current weight for rents of 36 out of 1,000, was based on an estimated average weekly expenditure of about £4.70 in January 1982.