Mortgage Interest Tax Relief

HC Deb 05 June 1996 vol 278 cc451-2W

Mr. Chisholm

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost of mortgage interest tax relief would have been in each year since 1994–95 if relief had been available at 25 per cent. [30193]

Mr. Jack

The total cost of mortgage interest relief and the estimated cost if relief was available at 25 per cent., for the years 1994–95 to 1996–97 for the UK as a whole, are as follows:

		£ million
	Cost of mortgage interest relief	Cost of relief if available at 25 per cent.
1994–95	3,500	4,400
1995–96	2,700	4,500
1996–971	2,500	4,200
1 Estimates for 1996–97 are provisional. They are based on the assumption, by convention, of no change from the current estimated average building society interest rate of 7.03 per cent.

The rate of relief in 1994–95 was 20 per cent. From 1995–96 onwards it has been 15 per cent.