§ MR. WILKIE (Dundee)To ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that on page 33, Appendix (4), of the Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence, Select Committee on Post Office Servants, the index number of rent and prices combined is given by the Board of Trade as 115 at Dundee, 111 at Plymouth, and 111 at Devonport, and that, according to the latest Board of Trade Returns published during the current year, Dundee is the most costly provincial city in the United Kingdom, being only one point below London; and whether considering the elevation of Plymouth and Devonport to to the extent of 4s. weekly, by reason of the high cost of living, he will state the reason for no advance being made to the Dundee staff.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) In the first statement referred to by the hon. Member the rent and prices at Dundee have been compared with an average of 19 towns only, 16 in England and Wales, 2 in Scotland, and 1 in Ireland. In the second statement the comparison is with London. Neither of these comparisons takes into account the different conditions of housing in Scotland and England. The comparison of the Scottish standard based upon the average of the towns in Scotland inquired into by the Board of Tradegives Dundee the same indexnumber of cost of living as Edinburgh, viz. 103. Dundee has about 1,100 units of work and falls properly for the scales of pay of the Post Office staff into Class 2, the range of which is from 800 to 1,700 units. The cost of living on the Scottish standard is not sufficiently high to warrant its promotion 934 to Class 1, and it therefore remains in Class 2. Plymouth and Devonport combined have over 1,600 units of work, The amount of work is therefore very nearly sufficient to warrant Class 1 scales, even if the cost of living were not above the average. As the index number of the cost of living is as high as 112 Plymouth and Devonport fall into Class 1.