HC Deb 13 January 1988 vol 125 cc278-9W
Mr. Tony Banks

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what proportion of households with below average incomes live in properties the rateable value of which is more than the average domestic rateable value for the authority in which they are situated.

Mr. Howard

The information requested is not available.

Mr. Forth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he is yet in a position to update his estimates of the impact of the community charge on individual households.

Mr. Howard

I have today placed in the Library a note which updates the principal exemplifications of the impact of the community charge, originally contained in the Green Paper "Paying for Local Government" (Cmnd. 9714).

These later figures confirm that: domestic rates are very badly related to ability to pay. For the lowest income group (those with an income of up to £50 pw) rates amount to 4.1 per cent. of net income. The community charge amounts to 3.4 per cent.; community charges on average will be less than domestic rates at all income levels up to £150 pw; many poorer people pay more in rates than those who are better off even in the same local authority area. This is because 41 per cent. of households living in homes with above average rateable values have below average incomes; 40 per cent. of those with above average incomes live in homes with below average rateable values; 80 per cent. of single pensioner households and 75 per cent. of other single adult households will gain from these proposals; when fully implemented 53 per cent. of households (9.8 million) will gain from the introduction of the community charge.

These figures demonstrate that domestic rates do not reflect ability to pay, that the poorest households stand to gain from the community charge, and that, contrary to recent opinions reflected in a recent poll, the majority of households will in fact gain from these proposals.

Mr. Rooker

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give the numbers of single pensioners to whom his reference of 69 per cent.,Official Report, column 1325, 17 December, represents in respect of the poll tax.

Mr. Howard

I have today placed in the Library updated estimates which show that overall some 24 million single pensioners (66 per cent.), in England, would benefit from the full implementation of the community charge and nearly 2 million (80 per cent.) of single pensioner households would do so.