§ Ms WalleyTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what is his estimate for each of the last five years of(a) the number of households with a telephone and (b) those without by socio-economic category. [8447]
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§ Mr. Ian TaylorWe have made no such estimate. However, figures from the family expenditure survey suggest the following:
- in 1991 88.0 per cent. of households had a telephone;
- in 1992 88.4 per cent. of households had a telephone;
- in 1993 89.6 per cent. of households had a telephone;
- in 1994–95 91.1 per cent. of households had a telephone;
- in 1995–96 92.4 per cent. of households had a telephone.
We do not have figures for each of the last five years on the number of houses without a phone by socio-economic category. However, the results of the general household survey 1994 "Living in Britain" revealed that for households, the head of which was economically active, the proportion without a phone was 7 per cent. For households with economically inactive heads 12 per cent. were without a phone. A breakdown of these figures into socio-economic sub-groups is given in the survey, which is available in the Library of the House and which reveals interesting spending priorities within the categories.