ePolitix.com reports on Tuesday's Commons Business and Enterprise Committee evidence session on post offices.
Witnesses
Session One:
Co-operative Group -Duncan Bowdler - trade liaison manager and chairman of the CRTG post office group
Co-operative Group - Sue Wood – national manager for the post office group
PayPoint - Dominic Taylor - chief executive
The leaders of PayPoint came under criticism from a group of MPs for not providing free cash services in remote areas.
During a session of the Commons business and enterprise committee, Lindsay Hoyle (Lab, Chorley) accused the heads of PayPoint of failing to provide money services in rural areas.
And Anne Moffat (Lab, East Lothian) stated that PayPoint had a "captive audience" and should look at the viability of free cash.
Dominic Taylor, chief executive of PayPoint, revealed to the committee that they were trialing some free ATM machines. But he stressed that the business model would need to be "commercially viable".
The committee was holding an evidence session on securing the future of Post Offices.
Witnesses from the Co-operative Group also warned MPs that government subsidy could be necessary for some rural Post Offices.
Duncan Bowdler, of the Co-operative Group, told the MPs that in certain rural locations a service was not "viable" on a day-to-day basis.
He suggested that in these instances a government subsidy might be necessary to keep the service running.
Dominic Taylor accused the current subsidies to the Post Office of not being "transparent" or targeted to specific outlets. He suggested that this was of "significant levels of concern".
Bowdler explained that the Co-op owned some ex-Crown Post Offices, and smaller ones as well.
PayPoint processes over 450 million retail payments through its 21,000 outlets. Approximately 1,200 of these are mutual sites with the Post Office.
Brian Binley (Con, Northampton South) suggested that there was a "conflict" between those who still think that the Post Office is part of a "romantic" past and those who do not.
But Sue Wood, national manager for the post office group for the Co-op, replied that their stores were also "at the heart of the community". She suggested that the structure of the Post Office meant that it was well placed to offer data protection, sensitivity and one-on-one transactions.
There is a "definite need" for this service in the future, Wood added.
PayPoint only has 3,500 sites rurally out of a total of 21,000.
But Taylor defended this record by suggesting that PayPoint was "constrained" because the Post Office "sits" in the local shop and they are not allowed to go into those sites.
He admitted that the Post Office does have better coverage in the rural communities than PayPoint, but they "prided themselves" on their geographical coverage.
But Binley accused them of "overstating" their rural position.
On the new proposals for a 'Post Bank', Bowdler admitted that it might be a problem for the Co-op bank in the future. He stated that the Post Office was not currently a "major threat" to the Co-ops financial arm, but warned that it might become so.
He stated: "I think that if the Post Office develops a major plank of operations into financial services, then inevitably it will conflict in some way to the Co-op offering."
And Wood expressed concern over the use of the 'Essex model', where a local authority has taken control of certain Post Offices in the area.
She stated: "I really didn’t understand why we were giving opportunities to county councils to keep Post Offices open.
"I am not confident that should there be government changes. It might be that those Post Offices cannot be sustained."
She also revealed that the Co-op group lost almost 40 Post Offices as mart of the network change programme.
Witnesses
Session Two:
Consumer Focus – Ed Mayo – chief executive
Age Concern/Help the Aged – Mervyn Kohler – special adviser
Citizens Advice Bureau – Tony Herbert – policy officer
Witnesses at the Commons business and enterprise committee have called for the Post Office to cater more effectively for vulnerable people who are not able to access forms and administration online.
But representatives from Consumer Focus, Age Concern and the Citizens Advice Bureau all agreed that there had to be a continued role for the Post Offices in the community.
Policy officer at the Citizens Advice Bureau, Tony Herbert, described the service as a "one-stop-shop" for the community and commented on the helpfulness of staff.
Herbert also told the committee that now was the time to investigate the impact of Post Office closures, stating that the Bureau was starting to see people suffer as a result.
And Mervyn Kohler, special adviser to the soon-to-be merged Age Concern and Help the Aged, warned that a "blanket withdrawal" of form-filling from Post Offices would be a "step too far" for older people without a computer.
"The world will change but it is changing rather faster than an older population would like it to," he suggested to MPs.
But he criticised the post office account, stating that it had "limited functionality" and was unable to offer loans directly.
But Ed Mayo, chief executive of Consumer Focus, warned MPs that subsidies must have a part to play in driving a "sustainable" Post Office network.
And he suggested looking at New Zealand's Kiwi Bank as an example for a workable financial model for the Post Office.
"Now would be a better time than any for 'Post Bank' to emerge with a commercial nous and a brand," he said.
But Herbert said that he was "frustrated" with the Post Office's "limited operations" at times. He suggested that the network should be able to bank business accounts.
