Tag: Royal Mail

Securing sustainability of the network is now the issue

Posted by | May 17, 2007 | |

Postcomm, the independent regulator for postal services, has commented on the Governments long-term plans to safeguard the future of a viable and sustainable Post Office network.

Postcomm Chairman Nigel Stapleton said:

Steps to secure the long-term sustainability of the Post Office network must now be the priority. The Governments timetable for closures is ambitious and it is vital that, at the same time, Post Offices are being given the right range of services and products to give them a long term future. In order for it to survive, the Post Office network needs a clear vision, well trained and motivated people and associated set of commercial products and services.

Postcomms statutory role requires it to monitor developments in the Post Office network and provide advice to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, but it is not its role to make decisions on the future of either the network as a whole, or of any individual Post Office.

Postcomm aims to make sure that:

* Royal Mail provides universal access to postal services;
* the government has clear advice about developments in the Post Office network and its role;
* attention is focused not on Post Office numbers, but on making sure customers have sufficient access to Post Office services to meet their current and future needs; and
* the provision of Post Office services takes account of the needs of vulnerable groups and those living in isolated and deprived areas.

Postcomm issued a report, entitled Post Offices at the crossroads, in October 2006, which is available on the Postcomm website (www.psc.gov.uk).

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Post Office broadband service to be launched under deal with BT

Posted by | May 17, 2007 | |

The Post Office will launch a broadband service later this year under a strategic partnership with BT Wholesale, it was announced today.

The agreement marks a key step in the Post Office’s drive to expand its range of services and products to generate new revenues to support the branch network by helping replace lost income from a decline in its traditional business.

“The agreement provides the platform to enhance the Post Office’s existing HomePhone service while offering customers some of the best deals in the market for both voice and internet broadband services.”

Under the four-year deal, BT Wholesale will provide an integrated range of telephony and broadband services.

It builds further on the Post Office’s growing range of new services and products, including car and home insurance, Instant Saver accounts, the Post Office credit card and personal loans, as well as increasing sales of foreign currency and travel insurance.

The first benefits from the agreement will be unveiled next month when Post Office HomePhone launches a new price and service package that will strengthen further its existing competitive offering. HomePhone has already won 400,000 customers with the lowest line rental prices of any major provider if payment is by direct debit, along with itemised billing, and discounts against favourite numbers.

Work is already underway by the Post Office to launch a broadband service in the autumn that will compete head to head with the major players in the market.

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2,500 UK Post Offices will close

Posted by | May 17, 2007 | |

As expected Alistair Darling has confirmed there will be 2,500 compensated post office closures over the next 18 months. This will leave a post office network by spring 2009 of about 11,800 post offices.

Millie Banerjee, Chair of the watchdog for postal services, Postwatch, gave the following reaction to the news:

“This will not be a popular decision. But there is a broad consensus amongst those who have been considering the future of post offices that quite severe pruning is necessary if the remaining network is to be sustainable.

“Fewer customer visits and losses of over GBP 200 million a year meant action was needed. It is welcome that the government has confirmed today that financial support in excess of GBP 1.5 billion will be available up to 2011.

“We wanted the government to take a decision and to provide the missing strategic guidance. It is now down to Post Office Limited to work with Postwatch, MPs, local authorities and customers to implement the decision and to maintain as far as possible customer access to post offices services. We welcome the introduction of 500 alternative post offices in place of their bricks and mortar counterparts. These alternative mobile, part-time or co-located solutions provide local access at far less cost.

“Customers will be concerned to know if their local office is under threat. At this early stage no-one knows which offices will be proposed for closure. An announcement will be made once the closure consultation plan and timetable are finalised.

“I am sure customers will recognise that it is better for closures to be planned rather than unplanned: Unplanned closures could have led to some areas having no access at all to post office services.

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GBP 1.7bn investment to keep Post Office network national

Posted by | May 16, 2007 | |

Investment, stronger protections for local communities and more outreach services are at the centre of the Government’s GBP 1.7 billion proposals to maintain a national Post Office network and put it on a sustainable footing for the e-mail age.

Responding to the wide consultation undertaken since the December 2006 statement, Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling has announced the Government has strengthened further the protections for customers in rural and remote areas and widened the areas that will qualify for special protections for deprived urban communities.

With widespread acceptance that the current size of the network is unsustainable and losses rising to GBP 4 million every week, despite an annual subsidy of GBP 150 million and total investment of GBP 2 billion since 1999, it will be for Post Office Ltd to draw up local area plans within the national framework. That will be done with input from local authorities, MPs, the consumer protection body Postwatch and subpostmasters, for consultation with local people.

Postwatch will also monitor future decisions on the shape and size of the network to ensure Post Office Ltd continues to comply with the national framework.

In the longer term, the Government is working on proposals to devolve greater responsibility for future decisions on post offices to a local level, and will investigate what role local authorities and the devolved administrations could play in decisions on future services and funding.

The strategy announced today does not include decisions on individual post offices. These will be taken by Post Office Ltd after their local area consultations.

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Remote post offices could avoid the axe

Posted by | May 16, 2007 | |

Post offices in some of the most remote parts of Britain could be spared from closing in a late rethink by ministers.

But the move, understood to help areas of Scotland in particular, will lead to suspicions that Labour is trying to revive its battered fortunes in Gordon Brown’s homeland.

Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, will confirm tomorrow that about 2,500 post offices will have to shut over the next 18 months.

Mr Darling is expected to tell MPs that, with many branches struggling to attract any business, the current UK-wide network of more than 14,000 post offices must be slimmed down to about 12,000.

He is poised to confirm the scale of the closure programme, first outlined last December, despite presiding over a consultation process that produced more than 2,500 responses.

Mr Darling will attempt to soften the blow by confirming a compensation package likely to be worth on average pounds 60,000 for each branch that has to shut.

He will also confirm that as part of a pounds 1.7 billion investment between now and 2011, there will also be an annual subsidy of pounds 150 million to help the remaining post offices most at risk.

Even after tomorrow’s announcement, people in particular parts of the country will have to wait up to 18 months to find out if their branch is doomed under lengthy local consultation processes to be overseen by Post Office Ltd.

But last night, Government sources hinted that in one concession, Mr Darling, who also represents a Scottish constituency, would issue amended guidance to protect branches from closure in more inaccessible parts of the UK.

A well-placed source suggested last night that the Highlands of Scotland in particular would probably benefit from the change.

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