§ 98. Mr. Redmondasked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications whether he will estimate the total increase on postage which will be involved so far as concerns all local authorities for the United Kingdom arising from the proposed increases in postal charges; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ChatawayI have no means of arriving at this figure.
§ Mr. Gregor Mackenzieasked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications what reply he has sent to the Scottish Daily Newspaper Society's representations concerning postal charges.
§ Mr. ChatawayAs my letter was rather lengthy I am sending a copy to the hon. Member.
§ Mr. Redmondasked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications whether, with a view to avoiding the increases in postal charges recently proposed by the Post Office Corporation, he will give a general direction to that Corporation to take steps to review the separation of telecommunications and postal finances for the purpose of fixing target rates and profits.
§ Mr. ChatawayNo. I am satisfied that cross-subsidisation between the telecommunications and postal businesses would achieve no worthwhile gains. I note that the Post Office Users' Council took the same view in its Report on the postal tariff proposals.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications (1) 33W whether, as a means of assisting the Government's policy of reducing prices and containing the inflationary spiral, he will seek powers to reduce postal, telephone and telegraph charges;
(2) why, in view of the Government's policy of curtailing price increases in the nationalised services, he has agreed to postal increases of some 50 per cent.; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ChatawayThe failure of our predecessors to tackle the mounting losses of the Postal service left no choice but to increase postal charges or to cover them by a subsidy from general taxation. The former course was endorsed by the Users' Council, subject to concessions to users worth more than £30 million which were accepted in full by the Government. I see no need for new powers.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications whether he is aware that within days of his July decision on proposed postal increases further announcements were made by the Post Office of additional postal increases; and why all of these proposed increases were not announced at the same time in the House of Commons.
§ Mr. ChatawayIn my statement on 23rd July, I made it clear that the proposals for increased charges covered "letter, parcel, and other miscellaneous postal tariffs". I cited the basic letter rate as an example of the most important increase.