Stevenson Welcomes PostComm Report

Banff & Buchan MSP Stewart Stevenson has welcomed the publication of a report by Postcomm, the independent regulator for postal services, which calls on the Government to decide what it wants the future Post Office network to look like, in the face of continued piecemeal branch closures.

Mr Stevenson said:

“This report is welcome not least because it confirms many of the points my colleagues and I have been raising about the future of the Post Office network.

“The fact is that the Post Office as a business simply is not making money.  Last year it lost £111 million in spite of the Government’s subsidy to rural post offices of £150 million.  These are massive figures and point to a very uncertain future for the network.

“The Government has to take its share of the blame.  The Post Office lost £168 million in revenue from government transactions last year, as the DWP and DVLA withdraw services from Post Offices.  This sum is more than the Post Office's entire loss.

“In particular the report draws attention to what the Government terms the “social network” of Post Offices in rural areas and deprived urban areas. These are Post Offices which it allegedly recognises as having significance over and above their potential for generating cashflow.

“Nobody who lives in a rural area would question the importance of their Post Office as a community resource.  Unfortunately, I am not convinced that the Government feel the same way, given the death by a thousand cuts which has been inflicted on them.

“As the report states, the Government has to decide what it wants from the Post Office network and it has to do so quickly, while there is still a network worth the name.  If it does indeed accept that rural Post Offices have a social function as important as their financial function, then it must be prepared to support them.”