No, the figure of £21 million refers to improvements in pay, the effect of the shorter working week, the consequential increase in pensions, and so forth, but it does not include any element for increased prices. The major element, undeniably, has been improvements in pay and conditions of service. The balance of £180 million, which is two-thirds of the total increase in expenditure, has been due to improvements in pay and in conditions of service, together with higher prices for goods and services. Increased expenditure to cope with business expansion I put at £90 million. I should like to give the House one or two figures which I think will indicate the pattern of experience during the last ten or fifteen years.ĭuring the last ten years, Post Office expenditure has increased by no less than £270 million. I sometimes wonder whether those who express indignation whenever prices are raised, however modestly, or who protest that wage increases are irrelevant, have any real understanding of what has been happening since the end of the war. The second important factor is, of course, higher rates of pay and other improvements in conditions of service which have cost the Post Office about £21 million. Our income from pools-postage and postal orders-has fallen from £13 million in 1960 to £8♹ million in 1962. I should like to reiterate that this is so. Although the number of trunk calls has risen, the income for each call on the average has been less than it was previously.īy the way, I thought that the other day I detected a note of surprise in the Chamber when I referred to a drop in football pools traffic as an important contributory factor. A number of Post Office services have been adversely affected-inland letters, postal orders, parcels, local calls and even trunk calls. That, of course, has applied to many of our industries and services. The first is that in the last two years the pace of growth has slackened. First, why have Post Office profits fallen to £9 million in the present financial year? There are two reasons. Perhaps there may have been some slight misunderstanding as to why this has been necessary.
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Members know, it has recently been necessary to increase the prices in order to produce an additional income of about £14 million in a full year. I want, next, to plunge into the question of the finances of the Post Office. I realise from the correspondence I have received from members of the public that their efforts have been very highly appreciated. All of them, and perhaps particularly those who labour in rural areas, did a great job of work under very trying conditions. Friend the Assistant Postmaster-General to refer to that important side of our activities when he winds up the debate.Īt the start, however, I should like once more publicly to express my thanks and the thanks of the Post Office for the fine work of our postmen and our engineers, in particular, during the recent spell of very bad weather. I hope that the House will not think that I am unmindful of the postal side of our organisation if, for the most part, I leave it to my hon. Members would be eager to participate in the debate but there is not much evidence in that sense at the moment. I had thought of saying that I was sure that many hon. Since our debate is limited, I do not propose to make a long speech.