Tag: Royal Mail

Rural post offices could go mobile or relocate to pubs and church halls under plans to preserve the threatened network.

The ideas are being encouraged by the Scottish Executive, as it faces fallout from the likely closure of hundreds of rural post offices.

Whitehall ministers will announce this week that changes to the support for Britain’s loss-making post offices, including the removal of counter services on which they have depended, could see many of them close.

Opposition parties, business and campaign groups yesterday stepped up their demands for ministers not to sanction wholesale closures among the 14,500 offices across the UK.

Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling will tell MPs this week how much money the government is prepared to give the Royal Mail which will help shape the future size of the network.

Ross Finnie, Scotland’s Rural Development Minister, has been putting the special case for Scotland’s rural post offices, arguing that closures would mean the financial exclusion of many Scots.

Pilots have been tried to make the network more flexible, combining services with other facets of village life, including the village hall, and pub. There has also been the possibility of running mobile post office vans.

A fifth of Britain’s post offices could be shut under government-backed plans to be outlined by ministers next week. Alistair Darling, trade and industry secretary, is preparing to sanction proposals to shut between 2,500 and 3,000 urban and rural post offices in a bid to stem mounting losses, the Financial Times understands. The decision could provoke a backlash from Labour MPs and rural communities which have campaigned fiercely to protect post offices from closure. However, ministers believe they have struck the right balance between Royal Mail’s demands to shut thousands more and the need to maintain a widespread service. Mr. Darling will also make it clear that the government intends to continue with a public subsidy for rural post offices at about its current level of GBP150m a year, which was due to expire in 2008. The Department of Trade and Industry is due to make a statement next Thursday on the future of the 14,400-strong post office network. The cuts are likely to be implemented over a number of years.

The Royal Mail has told ministers that half of Britain’s 14,500 post offices should be shut to stem mounting losses, it was reported today.
But the Government is likely to propose that a fifth of rural and urban branches- between 2,500 and 3,000 – be closed down, according to the Times.
Controversy over plans for reforming the network has been growing in the run-up to an announcement by the Department for Trade and Industry expected next Thursday.
Royal Mail has previously claimed that around 4,000 post offices nationwide would be the optimum “commercial” level, although chief executive Adam Crozier has accepted its social benefits must also be taken into account.
Currently the network comprises around 8,000 rural and 6,500 urban branches, and is said to make an operating loss of GBP2 million every week – subsidised with GBP150 million annually from the Treasury.