HC Deb 20 July 1994 vol 247 cc308-10
11. Mr. John Marshall

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what representations he has received on his Green Paper on the Post Office.

Mr. Heseltine

rose

Mr. Tony Banks

A reshuffle!

Mr. Heseltine

I can tell the House that the result that I am about to announce is just as good as the result that the reshuffle will produce.

The Green Paper was published on 30 June and responses are invited by 30 September. I have therefore understandably received relatively few responses to the document to date.

Mr. Marshall

At a time when the Post Office is facing increased international competition, and when the German and Dutch Post Offices are being privatised, would not it be entirely wrong to handicap British industry by denying it the advantages of privatisation and access to the capital markets?

Mr. Heseltine

My hon. Friend would not expect me to make any premature decisions. We are consulting widely on the future of the Royal Mail, and we have published an excellent Green Paper. Although the Green Paper expressed preference for the Government's proposal, we will listen carefully to what all right hon. and hon. Members, and people outside the House, have to say before we reach a final decision.

Mr. Barnes

Is not it pretty disgraceful that the chairman of the Post Office should jump on board the privatisation proposal in the Green Paper in the way that he has? Nearly all the chief executives and other officials who have been involved in the privatisation of gas, electricity and other utilities have responded similarly, rather than by recognising their public responsibility to operate public services. Has not that something to do with the Government's policy on monetarism and the private market?

Mr. Heseltine

That is one of the most preposterous statements that I have heard from an Opposition long famed for making preposterous statements. Every Tom, Dick and Harry in the trade union movement seems to be entitled to have his view paraded in the House as though it were the ultimate document; when the chairman comments, what he says is regarded as an insult and an abuse. I do not understand what democracy means to Opposition Members.

Mr. Dunn

In running scare stories about the future of sub-post offices, are not the Labour party and its socialist allies the Liberal Democrats in great danger of crying wolf just once too often, given that the future of the sub-post offices has been secured in the Green Paper?

Mr. Heseltine

My hon. Friend enables me to make the same point that my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon, South (Mr. Marshall) made a few moments ago. The proposals for the sub-post offices have been warmly welcomed by representatives of the owners of those post offices, which shows once again that the Government have got it right and the Labour party has got it wrong.

Mr. Cousins

Will the President of the Board of Trade admit that 40 per cent. of the business of sub-post offices consists of the payment of cash benefits, and that a secure system for such payment is long overdue? Will he give the House and the sub-post offices a guarantee that they will not be charged for access to any new technology that may be introduced for secure payment and that banks and supermarkets will not be allowed access to that system, thus destroying the livelihood of those running sub-post offices?

Mr. Heseltine

I do not think the hon. Gentleman understands that the sub-post offices already provide some banking services. The issue is whether they should be allowed to provide wider banking services. Nothing so characterises the difference between the Government and the Labour party as the fact that Labour wants to stop people from doing things, while we want to expand their opportunities.

Mr. Jenkin

Would my right hon. Friend care to comment on local authorities that are already launching an anti-privatisation campaign—for instance, my local authority in Colchester, which is controlled by a Lib-Lab alliance? Are not those local authorities wasting their time in running unnecessary scare stories and should they not concentrate their efforts on keeping their council tax down?

Mr. Heseltine

That would be extremely attractive to local tax payers. My hon. Friend will appreciate, however, that I shall have to listen extremely carefully to all the representations and judge them on their merits before recommending to my colleagues the way in which we should proceed as the Green Paper consultation period comes to an end.