§ Mr. Terry Davisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish figures for 1981 and 1982 for a married man with two children earning average male manual earnings, showing the length of time worked, 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 on a newly-built three-bedroomed semi-detached house, 3 lb beef sirloin, 2 lb fresh cod, 14 lb of potatoes, a large loaf, ½ lb tea, a quart of fresh milk, 5 cwt best coal, five gallons of petrol, a weekly season ticket between Surbiton and London, postage on five letters, 20 cigarettes, a pint of beer and a bottle of whisky.
§ Mr. BrittanThe information requested is presented as follows. It is calculated in minutes and is based on average male (over 21) manual earnings in all industries and services, excluding those whose pay was affected by absence, in April of the relevant years (the month for which figures are available from the new earnings survey).
The income tax figure assumes no allowances other than personal allowances (for example no allowance for pension contributions or work expenses). The national 328W insurance contributions used are at the contracted-in rate. Child benefit, which is paid to the mother, is not taken into account. The appropriate figures for average hours worked (published in the Department of Employment Gazette) have been used to give the earnings per minute figures for the calculations. In each case the price data comes from information collected for the RPI unless otherwise stated. It should be noted that the basis for some of these figures is a little different from those provided in previious answers to similar questions.
April of each year 1981 1982 Average weekly rent of a three-bedroomed council dwelling* 360.0 392.4 Repayment in first month of 25 year building society mortgage, based on average advance on new dwelling at mortgage completions† 4,146.6 4,288.9 31b beef sirloin (without bone) 211.9 220.2 21b fresh cod (fillets) 64.8 65.2 141b old potatoes (white, loose) 24.4 41.1 Large loaf (white, sliced) 10.7 10.3 250g tea (medium-priced varieties) 17.1 15.2 2 pints fresh milk 11.1 11.1 5 cwt domestic coal (best quality) ‡604.0 602.2 5 gallons petrol (4-star) 233.0 225.0 Weekly season ticket between Surbiton and London|| 275.0 268.4 Inland postage on 5 letters (1st class) 21.0 21.4 20 cigarettes (typical brand) 26.5 26.9 Pint of beer (bitter) 15.4 15.8 Bottle of whisky (typical brand) 189.1 190.1 * From CIPFA housing rents statistics † From building societies' monthly mortgage survey, net of tax at basic rate ‡ May figure ||Figure obtained from British Rail.