HC Deb 09 February 1972 vol 830 cc1324-5
21. Mr. Charles R. Morris

asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications what action he now proposes to take to assist the Post Office Corporation with the financial deficit which it has incurred in providing postal services.

Mr. Chataway

I have nothing to add to the reply I gave to the hon. Member on 2nd February.—[Vol. 830, c. 121.]

Mr. Morris

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the situation has changed since then and that the decision of the Post Office Users' Council over the proposed abolition of the second delivery adds up to a massive and mounting deficit with which the Post Office Corporation is faced? Why will the Minister not have regard to what the Prime Minister said about honest and open Government? Why will he not tell the nation that an increase in postal rates is now a distinct possibility?

Mr. Chataway

I have never suggested that postal rates could be held at their current levels indefinitely, but I have made it clear that discussions with the Post Office about further remedial measures are being pursued in the wider context of the effects of the C.B.I. initiative on the nationalised industries, as was indicated in a statement to the House by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 9th November.