§ All that I have said indicates the Government's intention to set an example of restraint in their own capital expenditure. It is in this spirit that we have also considered the investment requirements of the Post Office, and the steps necessary to bring Post Office finance into line with current economic needs. My right hon. Friend the Postmaster-General is laying a White Paper today which sets out his plans in detail. In common with other authorities, the Post Office must restrain the rate of its capital investment, and I am sorry to say that it will not be possible for the Postmaster-General to reduce the size of the telephone waiting list quite as quickly as we should have liked; but we shall do all we can.
§ It is also necessary to bring charges into closer relationship with the cost of the services offered to each class of subscriber, including a proper allowance for the present high costs of equipment. Many telephone subscribers at present have a telephone for half of what it costs the Post Office to instal and maintain it. The adjustments which my right hon. Friend is proposing will bring us nearer to a position in which the waiting list consists of persons who are prepared to pay the economic price for the service. Together with some necessary increases in postal tariffs, these changes will produce no less than an extra £26 million a year. The Postmaster-General's White Paper will be available in the Vote Office when I sit down.