§ Mr. Heathcoat-AmoryTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 15 July,Official Report, column 136, concerning the fine tuning of his modelling of the consequences of reducing value added tax on domestic fuel, if he will estimate the weekly benefit of the reduction, net of the consequential lower uprating of pension benefits next April, to an average (a) single pensioner, (b) pensioner couple and (c) single householder on average earnings. [9450]
§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answer 18 July 1997]: The change in the VAT rate on domestic fuel will have no impact on the real value of the basic state pension. We are committed to uprating the basic state pension at least in line with prices and will consider the uprating of benefits at the normal time and in the normal way.
Households will on average gain £18 a year from the reduction in VAT on domestic fuel from 8 to 5 per cent.