§ The Government must exercise a similar restraint on their own capital programmes. We have, therefore, examined the present programme of new Government building, and have considered which projects can be postponed with least detriment to our interests and without waste of expenditure. By way of illustration, I will mention one or two of the larger schemes which we have had under review.
§ First, the Westminster Hospital site. The Committee will be aware that this site was acquired in 1947 for the purpose of providing a new Colonial Office building at an estimated cost of about £3 million. We have now decided that, for the present, we must discontinue the work at the point it has now reached—that is to say, at basement level. Then there is the site in Horseferry Road, which has been acquired for the erection of new Government offices. These were estimated to cost nearly £3 million. Here, again, we have decided to halt the work at basement level.
§ We have also had to look particularly closely at plans for Government building overseas, since this is a field in which savings have a double effect—on the balance of payments as well as on the total of Government expenditure. One major project, which has now reached the sketch-plan stage, is that for a new office in Washington to house the staff of the Embassy and other United Kingdom missions, at a total cost of about £1 million. We had hoped to make a start with this building by the end of 1956, but we have reluctantly decided that we should not be justified, in present circumstances, in proceeding with plans that may involve us in heavy dollar expenditure, if not now then in twelve or eighteen months' time.
§ There are a number of other, more long-term projects where we may have to consider spreading expenditure over a 219 longer period than we had hoped. One of these is the Royal Mint, in which I have a particular interest because, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, I am ex officio Master, Worker and Warden and I have long wished to see the Mint more adequately housed than it is at present. We shall have to look at the timing of the plans for this and other projects.