Mutual Post Office will mean end to branch closures, says UK minister
Britain’s postal affairs minister Ed Davey promised today that the “days of closure programmes of local post offices are over”. Speaking at the annual conference of his political party, the Liberal Democrats, the minister said he would ensure that the state-owned Post Office Ltd is turned into a mutual co-operative organisation.
He said the proposal, giving employees and local communities an ownership stake in the post office network would make the Post Office “everything we want and know it can be”.
“We, in Government, aren’t just saving them. But building a real future for our Post Offices, in every community,” he said at the conference in Birmingham.
The speech came as the UK government launched a public consultation into its plans for Post Office Ltd today.
Following his speech, the minister said of the consultation: “The consultation, Building a Mutual Post Office, published today, sets out the different options for how we might enable subpostmasters, employees, post office customers and local communities, to have a real stake in the future of the Post Office.”
The minister’s view on the future shape of Post Office Ltd, which runs about 11,500 post office branches across the UK, came following this summer’s recommendations from Co-operatives UK.
Minister Ed Davey wants to see a mix of staff and community representatives owning the Post Office network
The government is keen on the kind of system used by the nationwide retailers John Lewis and Co-operative Group, which are owned by their employees, except that it would prefer a combination of “producers” – staff and operators – and consumers taking ownership, “with no one constituency having an overall majority”.
“Our proposal that a possible structure for a Post Office mutual could be a three tier structure, comprising of the membership, a representative body, and Board of Directors,” said the government in its consultation.
“Distraction”
Commenting on the government’s plans, the Communication Workers Union described the mutualisation of Post Office Ltd as a “distraction to the real issues facing the network”.
CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said: “Mutualisation won’t keep post office counters open. The Post Office needs to be sustainable before it can be mutualised and that requires real business solutions and guaranteed funding. The sad fact is that dozens of post offices have closed under this government because contracts and services have been taken away by government, undermining revenues and leaving an uncertain future.”
Hayes also suggested that the Coalition Government would effectively force 2,000 post offices to close by “downgrading” services in certain branches to turn them into “Locals”.
“If the government abandons the privatisation agenda then the Post Office’s future could be secured as part of modernised Royal Mail. Breaking the Post Office away from Royal Mail is an experiment which no other country has risked,” he said.
Government services
Today also saw the postal affairs minister outlining his hopes to make the Post Office a “front office” for national and local government that would keep local branches open.
The minister said he would be writing to 25 local councils asking them to consider awarding service contracts to the Post Office.
He said: “No guaranteed contracts here – Post Office will have to compete. But I’m telling every Post Office manager there’s a business opportunity here they can seize.”
Davey’s speech followed up key recommendations from national consumer watchdog Consumer Focus, which pointed to the potential for more municipal services to be provided at postal retail counters.
Davey said today that more banks and building societies could also provide access to their services via post offices, where their own branches were not available locally.
“I’m delighted to tell you that, from this coming Friday, for the first time, Nat West customers will be able to do so as well,” he revealed, adding: “In fact, just two banks are holding out – HSBC and Santander.”
During his speech, Davey also noted that GBP 1bn is being provided by the government to help modernise 4,000 post offices over the next few years.
