Tag: Post Office Ltd

The Government has backtracked on a pledge to hold a public consultation over the future funding of 8,500 rural post offices before a spring deadline on what to do about them. The Government has spent pounds 150m a year since 2003 supporting rural branches, many of which are in remote locations and have little business. The payments, however, are due to stop in April 2008, at the end of a two-year “notice period” that must be served by the Government. After requests from interested parties, such as Postwatch, the consumer watchdog, and the charity Age Concern, stakeholders were told by the Government that a “full and public” consultation would be held ahead of the two-year notice period.
But a senior source at the Royal Mail said the Government has since changed its mind and no longer plans to hold a consultation before the April deadline. “The original plan was [to hold it] but now they are not so sure about what they are consulting on,” he said. A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry insisted a consultation would still go ahead but was unable to say when.

Post offices are being forced to close by an “urban” Government which does not understand the countryside, a Midland MP has claimed. Owen Paterson (Con North Shropshire) said villages risked losing vital services as post offices went out of business. The crisis was a result of changes to the way benefits are paid, he said. Many claimants, including pensioners, once collected payments from their local post office, but the money is now paid directly into bank accounts.
As a result, post offices lost customers as well as losing the fee they received for administering benefits, said Mr Paterson. Trade and Industry Minister Barry Gardiner said the Government was providing pounds 150 million a year to help rural post offices – but warned that some would have to close.

The new boss of Britain’s post office network expects a showdown within months of his arrival with ministers over the future of rural branches, many of which would shut if the government makes cuts to its pounds 150m subsidy. Royal Mail announced yesterday that Alan Cook, the current boss of National Savings & Investments, will take up his new position as managing director of its Post Office Ltd subsidiary next month. He is expected to repeat the turnaround at the Post Office, which has suffered a bruising couple of years. Deep cuts to the urban post office network sparked heated exchanges in parliament and protests from pensioner groups angry at the loss of local amenities. Moves to offset the loss of lucrative benefit payments with a wide range of financial services have also proved difficult in the face of stiff competition.

Alan Cook, the Chief Executive of National Savings and Investments (NS&I), has been appointed to the new post of Managing Director of Post Office Ltd, it was announced today. Reporting to Adam Crozier, Royal Mail’s Group Chief Executive, Mr Cook will develop the Post Office network in its key role of providing products and services to 28 million customers each week in communities nationwide. Mr Crozier said he was delighted Mr Cook had accepted the role. “Alan has a fantastic track record in growing business at NS&I where investments in Premium Bonds and other savings and investment products have grown by an impressive GPB10 billion in the last three years. “The Post Office has had a long and productive relationship with NS&I. In Alan, we are fortunate to have a business director who understands our business and its customers.

Royal Mail has axed the role of Post Office chief executive David Mills and is restructuring its management in an attempt to fend off competition from rival postal operators. The company said that it will shortly announce the appointment of two new managing directors – for the Post Office and Royal Mail Letters. While the Post Office was overseen by Mills, Royal Mail Letters fell under the jurisdiction of Adam Crozier, the group chief executive. Crozier will hand over control of the division to the new appointee, while Mills plans to leave the business at the end of this year. Royal Mail explained that the changes were part of its strategy to “streamline its group structure to give its four businesses the best platform to meet the growing competitive challenges in their markets”.