HC Deb 12 January 1988 vol 125 c196W
Mr. Rooker

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if, pursuant to his answer of 15 December,Official Report, column 458, and 16 December, Official Report, columns 521–22, he will give details of the calculations used to assess the contribution to local services via the grant system from national taxation of the 10 per cent. of households with the highest incomes compared to that of the 10 per cent. with lowest incomes.

Mr. Howard

[holding answer 11 January 1988]: Using a sample of households grouped into deciles of gross income, the calculations involved the following stages:

  1. (i) Calculate the amount of local spending funded by national taxation as a multiple of income from domestic rates (less rebates).
  2. (ii) Taking the figure produced by (i), calculate the amount of national taxation accounted for by centrally funded contributions to local taxation.
  3. (iii) Calculate the amount produced by (ii) as a proportion of total national taxation.
  4. (iv) Assuming that the proportion at (iii) applied equally to all households, estimate the amount of national taxation paid as a contribution to local authority spending by the top and bottom deciles of households by income.