§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what weight council house rents and mortgage interest payments have in the retail prices index; and if he will publish in theOfficial Report a table showing the weight given to each in the index in each of the past 10 years, the annual increase in the price of each component and in the index as a whole, and the implied amount currently being spent under each heading.
801W
§ Mr. TrippierA separate index for local authority rents is not published. The weights and movements of the rent and mortgage interest components of the retail prices index have been as follows:
Weight (out of 1,000) Percentage increase in year to January Rents Mortgage interest Rents Mortgage interest R.P.I. (all items) 1978 32 23 — — — 1979 32 31 9.4 38.8 9.3 1980 28 38 11.2 51.5 18.4 1981 30 42 22.7 15.1 13.0 1982 36 41 36.8 18.6 12.0 1983 36 30 11.0 -25.4 4.9 1984 35 39 4.8 2.8 5.1 1985 31 46 7.2 16.4 5.0 1986 29 54 7.4 18.4 5.5 1987 134 44 5.9 8.6 3.9 1988 33 42 5.7 -3.7 3.3 1Until 1987 the figures for rent were net of rebates. The implied amount being spent under the mortgage interest component is £8.13 per household per week. For rents the figure is £6.24. Both these figures represent an average (at January 1988 prices) taken over all households (both tenants and owner occupiers) covered by the RPI.