Axe falls on thousands of post offices
The government will this week announce the closure of 2,500 post offices across the country as part of plans to stem losses of GBP 4m a week across the 14,000 strong network.
Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling will release the government’s response to a six-month consultation on the network, indicating where offices will be lost and what measures will be taken to support those that are left.
At the same time, the Communication Workers Union is preparing to launch a ballot for strike action across its 140,000 membership at Royal Mail in a dispute over pay. The union plans to issue notification of the ballot on Tuesday if talks with Royal Mail on the current 2.5 per cent offer on Monday fail to reach a breakthrough.
There are also plans for a ballot among staff at main Crown post offices over plans to move 85 offices into WH Smith stores, while members at Post Office Cash Services, the division that handles and transports money from branches, are threatening a ballot over pay as well. A union source said there could be strikes across the mail and postal sector.
A spokesman for the National Federation of Sub Postmasters said half the government closures were expected in rural areas and half in towns and cities.
The government has indicated that if the post office network were a purely commercial organisation, it would run only 4,000 branches. However, it accepts that it also has a social role.
The DTI applied an ‘access’ formula to ensure that vulnerable customers and isolated communities are not left without services. It will also confirm that government support of £150m a year will continue until 2011, along with some 500 ‘outreach’ offices in pubs and shops.
The closures will cause concern among groups representing vulnerable consumers. Research by Citizens Advice this year found that post offices were used more frequently by people living in rural areas than in towns. However, figures show that it is rural offices that lose most money.
The National Federation of Sub Postmasters said it regretted the closures. It said it was essential that Post Office Limited developed a range of banking products to keep customers, and that offices continued to provide services such as passport and driving licence applications. The government has been criticised for withdrawing services such as pension payments from post offices, in favour of them being made directly to bank accounts.
Millie Banerjee, chair of consumer watchdog Postwatch, said the consultation had not taken account of some local factors such as transport links and the concentration of vulnerable customers in certain areas.
