Stamp of Approval?
Today the House of Commons Select Committee Committee on Trade & Industry published its report "Stamp of Approval? The future of the Post Office network".
The Chairman of the Committee, Mr Peter Luff, said
“We believe that post offices are more than commercial enterprises, playing a vital role in communities for both individuals and businesses, especially in rural and deprived urban areas. So we support the Government’s aim of sustaining the network. The proposals also mark the beginning of the end of a period of considerable uncertainty for subpostmasters.
“We have been told that to be worthy of the name the network needs about 12,000 post offices, but it is not clear how the Government arrived at this figure. We are concerned to ensure that the right decisions are taken in relation to individual post offices, and that those left after the restructuring continue to exist and, where possible, become commercially viable. We need more detail from the Government and Post Office Limited before we can be sure that the restructured network can be sustained. And we are particularly keen that sub-postmasters should not be constrained from developing new products to strengthen their business.”
The Committee expresses reservations about aspects of the Government’s proposals and calls for a number of changes to the Government’s approach. It notes that:
“It is not clear whether the suspiciously round figure of 2,500 closures was derived from a proper analysis of what was needed to provide a national network, or simply represents the maximum number that could be funded from the resources provided by HM Treasury. However, it is clear that the network of “about 12,000” post offices referred to by the Secretary of State takes into account only compensated closures: the Government’s proposals set no numerical limit on uncompensated ones.”
The report also calls for the Government to reconsider its timetable for the intended merger of Postwatch with two other consmer bodies since, as currently planned, Postwatch would cease to exist right in the middle of the closure progamme.
The Chairman of the Committee, Mr Peter Luff, said
“We believe that post offices are more than commercial enterprises, playing a vital role in communities for both individuals and businesses, especially in rural and deprived urban areas. So we support the Government’s aim of sustaining the network. The proposals also mark the beginning of the end of a period of considerable uncertainty for subpostmasters.
“We have been told that to be worthy of the name the network needs about 12,000 post offices, but it is not clear how the Government arrived at this figure. We are concerned to ensure that the right decisions are taken in relation to individual post offices, and that those left after the restructuring continue to exist and, where possible, become commercially viable. We need more detail from the Government and Post Office Limited before we can be sure that the restructured network can be sustained. And we are particularly keen that sub-postmasters should not be constrained from developing new products to strengthen their business.”
The Committee expresses reservations about aspects of the Government’s proposals and calls for a number of changes to the Government’s approach. It notes that:
“It is not clear whether the suspiciously round figure of 2,500 closures was derived from a proper analysis of what was needed to provide a national network, or simply represents the maximum number that could be funded from the resources provided by HM Treasury. However, it is clear that the network of “about 12,000” post offices referred to by the Secretary of State takes into account only compensated closures: the Government’s proposals set no numerical limit on uncompensated ones.”
The report also calls for the Government to reconsider its timetable for the intended merger of Postwatch with two other consmer bodies since, as currently planned, Postwatch would cease to exist right in the middle of the closure progamme.
posted by Anonymous at 6:26 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home