Member News
The government has published plans to secure the Post Office, with £1.24bn worth of funding promised over four years.
But a proposed state-backed Post Office bank will not go ahead as it would be too time-consuming and expensive.
The government has promised an "exciting new era" for the 11,500 Post Office branches, with longer opening hours, cut queues, refurbished outlets and a wider access to bank accounts.
In a policy statement, the government outlined a number of opportunities for the Post Office saying it wanted the organisation to become a genuine "front office" for government at both the national and local level.
A new model of providing postal services in partnership with retailers, involving extended opening hours, will be expanded to 2,000 smaller branches across the country.
Postal affairs minister Ed Davey announced a deal between Post Office Ltd and Royal Bank of Scotland that will allow RBS and NatWest customers to access to their current and business accounts through the Post Office.
This will allow for almost 80 per cent of current accounts to be accessible at post offices, he said.
Other planed changes include for the orgnaisation to become a mutual, owned by both customers and workers, at some point in the future.
Davey said: "Our long-term goal is to convert the Post Office into a mutual structure, for example like the Co-operative Group, giving employees, sub postmasters and communities a much greater say in how the company is run. Our programme means the network is on the cusp of an exciting new era.
"We're determined to turn the Post Office network around and end the years of decline. The Post Office is a tremendous national asset. It will not be for sale and there will be no programme of closures."
Billy Hayes, general secretary for the CWU, warned that plans to privatise the Royal Mail part of the postal group would "kill off" post offices.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, he said: "If you take away the oxygen of the Royal Mail from post office counters, if you take away the welfare contract, you are going to kill the post office network."
Hayes said that his local post office in south London had just been shut down, questioning the government's pledge not to return to Labour's closure programme.
The announcement comes as MPs start to question witnesses, including those from the Royal Mail, in the committee stage of the postal services bill.
Article Comments
Today's statement is light on any detail other than the decision to spike Post Bank. This would have brought lucrative business to the Post Office and access to finance in all communities for small businesses and the financially excluded.
Being triumphant about securing access to accounts in banks owned by the taxpayer is ludicrous and a huge climb-down for the Liberal Democrats.
Billy Hayes, general secretary, CWU
9th Nov 2010 at 3:02 pm
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