The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Dennis Roberts, dated 4 December 2006:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question on unsecured personal debt and average household disposable income by Government Office Region each year since 1997.I am replying in her absence. (105805)
The ONS published estimates of household income by regions and countries of the UK, but only publish levels of debt for the UK as a whole.
Table A contains estimates of gross disposable household income (GDHI) per head of population by Government Office Regions.
Table B contains the amount of unsecured personal debt and the average amount of unsecured personal debt for the UK.
Gross disposable household income per head of population 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 North East 8,330 8,534 8,861 9,293 9,822 10,127 10,583 10,906 North West 8,865 9,140 9,545 10,044 10,620 10,908 11,377 11,723 Yorkshire and the Humber 8,866 9,164 9,520 10,016 10,554 10,851 11,352 11,705 East Midlands 8,900 9,161 9,515 10,032 10,670 11,009 11,554 11,918 West Midlands 8,813 9,078 9,486 10,011 10,600 10,891 11,383 11,729 East of England 10,234 10,554 11,053 11,729 12,549 12,964 13,525 13,889 London 11,592 12,045 12,702 13,437 14,183 14,431 15,004 15,298 South East 10,875 11,303 11,845 12,532 13,348 13,723 14,310 14,656 South West 9,600 9,888 10,321 10,860 11,546 11,870 12,407 12,721 Wales 8,428 8,628 8,980 9,479 10,096 10,437 10,924 11,278 Scotland 9,096 9,325 9,683 10,215 10,840 11,225 11,763 12,116 Northern Ireland 8,287 8,526 8,881 9,376 9,935 10,233 10,667 10,988 United Kingdom 9,625 9,938 10,390 10,971 11,643 11,971 12,500 12,840 1 Gross disposable household income (GDHI) is the amount of money that households have available for spending or saving after deductions and expenditure associated with income, e.g. taxes and social contributions, and provision for future pension income. 2 The population measure is based upon mid-year estimates of total population. 3 Estimates are consistent with the national accounts series for the combined household and non-profit institutions serving households sectors as published in Blue Book 2005.
Unsecured personal debt1 (end-year) (£ million) Average unsecured personal Debt2 (end-year) (£) 1997 88,412 1,943 1998 97,404 2,133 1999 109,208 2,381 2000 124,323 2,696 2001 140,891 3,036 2002 157,748 3,378 2003 163,506 3,479 2004 183,390 3,875 2005 192,507 4,033 1 Unsecured personal debt is the sum of short term loans issued by monetary financial institutions in the United Kingdom and abroad. The data were published in the United Kingdom Economic Accounts table 64 published on 24 November 2006 available at the following address: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Productasp?vlnk=1904i&Pos=4&ColRank=l&Rank=422 2 Average unsecured personal debt is calculated as debt per head. The population figure used to derive this is the population aged 16+ in the United Kingdom. These estimates are expressed in nominal terms that are not adjusted for the effects of general price inflation.