§ Mr. Rookerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish any information he has on the distribution of outstanding mortgages which attract tax relief giving details of amount and length of mortgages and setting out any assumption used.
§ Mr. Norman LamontInformation on the distribution of outstanding mortgages which attract tax relief is not available from administrative tax data. Estimates of the distribution of mortgage interest payments which attract tax relief, based on projections to 1986–87 of information in the 1984–85 "Survey of Personal Incomes" and 1985 "Family Expenditure Survey," are given in the following table. These estimates include mortgages formerly under the option mortgage scheme, now subsumed under MIRAS.
The general level of mortgage interest rates in 1986–87 is assumed to be 11.5 per cent. as some lenders charge a different interest rate, the distribution of outstanding 93W mortgages cannot be derived accurately from the distribution of interest payments. Information on the length of mortgages is not available.
Tax units1 receiving mortgage interest relief by range of mortgage interest which attracts tax relief—1986–87 Range of mortgage interest payments in 1986–87 which attract tax relief Numbers receiving mortgage interest tax relief2 (thousands) Amount of mortgage interest payments which attract tax relief (£ million) Under £500 1,050 280 £500 to £999 1,350 1,000 £1,000 to £1,499 1,340 1,660 £1,500 to £1,999 1,130 1,960 £2,000 to £2,499 920 2,050 £2,500 to £2,999 900 2,490 £3,000 and over 1,500 5,010 Total 8,200 14,450 1Single persons and married couples 2Including about 500,000 non-taxpayers