To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the proportion of (a) English farming households and (b) households in rural areas with incomes below the Department for Work and Pension’s low income threshold. (135245)

For the population as a whole, the Government have a preferred measure of ‘low income’ defined as 60 per cent. of the median equivalised income for all UK households after tax. It may be presented either before housing costs or after housing costs. The Farm Business Survey is not able to provide figures for household income net of tax so farm household incomes cannot be compared directly with the low income threshold. Instead, they are compared with a modified low income threshold defined as 60 per cent. of the England median equivalised income before tax (and before housing costs).

This has been calculated from 2004-05 Family Resources Survey data. Table 1 shows that:

the mean income for farm households was higher than the national mean but the median income was about the same;

both mean and median farm incomes were lower than for the population of self-employed households;

31 per cent. of farm households were below the modified low income threshold (gross before housing costs) in 2005-06 compared with 21 per cent. for all households and 18 per cent. for self-employed households.

Household income data for rural households are not available. However, Table 2 shows the percentage of working age people living in England in households with an income of 60 per cent. below the GB median. Figures are broken down by DEFRA’s local authority (LA) classification. The classification divides LAs into the following six categories:

Rural-80: districts with at least 80 per cent. of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns,

Rural-50: districts with at least 50 per cent. but less than 80 per cent. of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns,

Significant Rural: districts with more than 37,000 people or more than 26 per cent. of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns,

Other Urban: districts with fewer than 37,000 people or less than 26 per cent. of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns,

Large Urban: districts with either 50,000 people or 50 per cent. of their population in one of 17 urban areas with a population between 250,000 and 750,000.

Major Urban: districts with either 100,000 people or 50 per cent. of their population in urban areas with a population of more than 750,000.