UK Postcomm calls for more innovation to create a viable rural Post Office network
The rural Post Office network should be planned using more innovative methods of service provisions such as mobile post offices and partnerships with other organisations or communities.
“Some of the 8,000 rural branches throughout the UK are in busy market towns, but others may serve only five customers a week,” Nigel Stapleton, chairman of Postcomm said. “There is no single model for all these situations and Post Office Ltd needs to be flexible to sustain access to postal services – perhaps a travelling Post Office – in the smaller and more remote communities.”
Post Office Ltd is due to report to the government at the end of 2005 on pilot schemes for more flexible provision of Post Office services in rural areas. Postcomm recommends that the rural network should be planned to reflect the local population and small business distribution to ensure access to cash and to help village stores and other rural businesses to survive.
Postcomm’s views are published today in its fifth report on the Post Office network to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alan Johnson.
The government-funded urban reinvention programme to manage the closure of around a third of the urban network is now complete. It is still early days, but Postcomm’s research shows that although people are now travelling further to a Post Office, in many respects accessibility is still good, even for more vulnerable groups. Sub-postmasters have been generally positive and business does appear to have improved in receiving offices, but the investment programme is lagging behind. Postcomm will follow up this research in January 2006 to examine the longer term impact of the programme on Post Office Ltd, subpostmasters and customers.
Postcomm believes that the opening of the UK postal market to competition from operators other than Royal Mail could provide a business opportunity for Post Office Ltd and an opportunity for subpostmasters to increase their income. At present sub-postmasters have a contract with Post Office Limited, a subsidiary of Royal Mail, that allows them only to provide services for Royal Mail and Parcelforce. If Post Office Ltd fails to respond the danger is that the initiative will be lost.
Notes for editors
Postcomm’s role is not to regulate, but to monitor developments and advise the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry about the Post Office network, including through an annual report.
Postcomm is due to make the findings of the Review of the Post Office Network Urban Reinvention Programme report, conducted by NERA and Aæcent available via its website on Friday 14 October 2005. Copies of the report can be downloaded from this date.
Postcomm is also due to update its Networks Abroad report. The revised executive summary will also be available on our website from 12 October.
Rural post office strategy 'is too rigid'
The Guardian, Sec. Financial Pages, p 25 10-11-2005
By Mark Milner
Royal Mail must take a more flexible approach to its network of rural post offices and tailor facilities to individual needs, according to the postal services regulator, Postcomm. The current regime, under which the rural network receives a subsidy of pounds 150m a year until 2008 and closures are ruled out unless absolutely unavoidable, is "not sustainable", the organisation said.
Postcomm, which regulates Royal Mail's postal services, but acts as an adviser on the post office network, said Royal Mail should consider schemes such as mobile post offices or taking other organisations into partnership.
"Some of the 8,000 rural branches throughout the UK are in busy market towns but others may only serve five customers a week. There is no single model and Post Office Ltd needs to be flexible to sustain access to postal services . . . in the smaller and more remote communities," Postcomm chairman Nigel Stapleton said.
In its annual report on the post office network, delivered to trade and industry secretary Alan Johnson, Postcomm said it was hoping for clear recommendations from Royal Mail by the end of the year.
Mr Stapleton said there was a need for a clear distinction between social and commercial policy issues. "The current uncertainties are damaging for the whole rural community," it said. "Government funding of the rural network until 2008 should be sufficient to see through the transition of benefit and pension payments to direct payment and. . .pilot methods of delivering a more viable postal service are being assessed; but this is not a recipe for long-term survival."
The UK might need to look at countries in continental Europe which earmarked funds for social purposes. "This will ensure that supply and demand are aligned, that new offices are opened only where they are necessary and that satisfactory access to post office services is provided in those areas where they are not viable on purely commercial grounds."
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