MPs to back £210M sub-post office closure package

MPs were tonight set to approve a £210 million state aid package for urban sub-post offices which will see up to 3,000 close.

Sub-postmasters will be offered more than two years’ pay to leave the business and remaining branches will be given up to £10,000 each for improvements.

Trade Minister Stephen Timms told the Commons there was simply not enough business to sustain the present network of 9,000 local branches.

But he reassured concerned Labour backbenchers that there would be a full public consultation on every proposed closure.

Measures would also be introduced to protect the country’s most deprived areas, he told them.

He said: “This programme is vital – to ensure that the post office can maintain an effective network, to ensure that the network can offer attractive prospects to sub-postmasters and to improve services for customers.

“We need to take this opportunity to set urban post offices firmly on the path towards sustained viability which is the key to enabling them to offer improved services for their customers from better, more convenient and more accessible locations”.