To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what her most recent estimate is of the ratio of house prices to wages in (a) Dorset and (b) Hampshire. (111320)

[holding answer 25 January 2007]: The most recently published information on the ratio of lower quartile house prices to lower quartile incomes at local authority district and county level is published on the Communities and Local Government website in Table 576 at

http://www.communities.gov.uk/pub/218/Table576_id1505218.xls

The earnings data come from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings of the Office for National Statistics of individuals and the house price data come from the Land Registry. The lower quartile price (or earnings) is that figure below which are one quarter of the prices (or earnings) and above which are three quarters of the prices (or earnings).