News story

19 November 2000

MP KEEPS UP PRESSURE OVER POST OFFICE CLOSURES

Northavon MP Steve Webb will this week challenge the Government over its failure to act on the increasing rate of post office closures. The MP will lead a debate at Westminster on Tuesday which will focus mainly on the national pattern of closures but will also make reference to the local situation. In Northavon, Steve Webb has played a leading role in saving one Post Office at Marshfield, and is currently working with residents of Oldbury to help keep Post Office services going there when the existing postmaster stands down in the week before Christmas. Earlier this month a Parliamentary written answer to Steve Webb revealed that in the first six months of this financial year 333 post offices had closed – almost as many as in the whole of the previous year. Postmasters are finding it increasingly difficult to find anyone to buy their businesses when they retire, not least because of the continued threat of loss of business when the Government forces people to receive their pensions and benefits through a bank account rather than through an order book at the Post Office. The Government has promised to help develop a new “Universal Bank” which could be accessed through Post Offices but this project is believed to have encountered problems. The Government has also promised subsidies for rural offices, but no payments have so far been made.

Steve Webb said:

“It is appalling that the rate of Post Office closures has actually speeded up in the first half of this year. The Government talks a lot but has achieved nothing. Unless there is urgent action, there will not be a Post Office network left to defend. I hope that my debate will highlight the lack of progress and put more pressure on the Government to act.”

** ENDS **

Note to editors: The debate will take place in Westminster Hall at 12.30pm on Tuesday 21st November. It is expected that DTI Minister Alan Johnson will respond to the debate.