Post Office, Housing Lorp. to merge;

Press, 18 February 1980, Page 6

Post Office, Housing Lorp. to merge;

. |A Wfellingtan fcV The amalgamation of some O&actions of the Post Office V tnd the Housing Corporation E |$ being considered, accords I gig to the Associate Minis; ' . |ler of Finance (Mr Quigley)* I No decision had been ken by the Government, he id, but the idea of a merir Of the corporation’s and e Post, Office Savings ink’s lending functions was ie he had raised himself ■cause he was concerned lout a possible duplication ■ Government functions... : Mr Quigley said that 1 the jst Office Savings Bank’s jrsonal loans scheme had •en expanded in recent jars to provide second and ibsequent mortgages: “I have asked several fe times whether a duplication fegbf functions between the Post Office and the Housing was possible; ■ particularly as the corporation invariably guarantees

the Post Office’s second mortgages under its. mortgage guarantee scheme,” he said. Post Office second mortgages were quite - expensive, tbecaUse although their interest rates were Comparatively low The loan ; had to be repald/irr a?? short time. -However, theVloari term had recently - been increased from ; five to 10;years. •The Post Office argument against any merging of lending was valid, because it had said . that it only Tent; to clients with a proven savings jecord, he said.

Mr Quigley said that the Post Office-Housing, Corporation exercise was just one of a range of activities, he was examining personally at present. It was also part of (the - Government’s over-all review of public sector activities.

Under the terms of the review, merging the Government Life Office and the

State Insurance Office had been contemplated but then rejected^•.

He said that another area He had considered was that of warrants pf'fitness. New Zealand had a sixmonthly check system, and was one of just three countries of 25 studied which did. Others did the check, annually, or waited until cars were three to five years did before - making -:warrant-of-fitness checks. ■ ? .>'. '•( Tn. New Zealand 13 per cent: of'warrants were issued by the Ministry of Transport, between 20 per cent and 30 per cent by local bodies, and the- rest by private garages, Mr Quigley said. . • However, over the next five years, between SSM and S6M .was set down in the Government’s capital works programme to build more testing stations for the Ministry of Transport.