Local Government Finance

Mrs. Spelman
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of households not on housing benefit who will pay (a) more and (b) less under the new discrete capital values system of local taxation.

Mr. Hanson
Address information on the households which are entitled to housing benefit is not available to the Department. However, benefit claimants will not all live in houses with lower rate liability under the new system.

Including those on benefit it is estimated that 55 per cent. of houses (approximately 385,000 households) will pay less under the system and 45 per cent. (315,000 households) pay more.