To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the total loss or gain to the average mortgagor who is (a) a one-earner couple with two children and (b) a two-earner couple with two children claiming mortgage interest relief resulting from changes since the 1988 Budget in (i) direct taxation (ii) increases in the rate of interest on mortgages and (iii) interest payments net of mortgage tax relief in all cases counting child benefit as a negative tax.

[holding answer 8 March 1990]: Information for a one-earner married couple with an average mortgage was given in my reply to the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, East (Mr. Brown) on 26 February, Official Report, column 13 The changes in income tax and NIC for a two-earner married couple with an average outstanding mortgage of £17,000 in 1987–88 and with average gross earnings of £22,500 are given in the table on the same basis as my previous reply. There has been no change in child benefit since the 1988 Budget.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the total loss or gain to the average new mortgagor in 1988 claiming mortgage interest relief resulting from changes since the 1988 Budget in (a) direct taxation, (b) increases in the rate of interest on mortgages and (c) interest payments net of mortgage tax relief.

[holding answer 8 March 1990]: I regret that information is not available on the changes in taxation of the average new mortgagor in 1988. I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, East (Mr. Brown) on 26 February, Official Report, column 13, for the gain to the average mortgagor.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the gain to the average family on an average mortgage from changes made in the Budgets of 1988 and 1989; and what is their estimated increase in mortgage repayments, on the basis of the same assumptions used in the answer to the hon. Member for Islington, South and Finsbury, of 13 February, Official Report, column 128.

[holding answer 13 March 1990]: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, East (Mr. Brown) on 26 February, Official Report, column 13.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list in tabular form and at constant prices the amounts which would be payable each month at 15·4 per cent. on a standard repayment mortgage repayable over 25 years of each of the regional average new mortgages listed in his answer of 19 February, Official Report, column 518 to the hon. Member for Nottingham, North (Mr. Allen).

[holding answer 19 March 1990]: The monthly interest payments, after deduction of basic rate tax relief, are given in the table.