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Post offices have to go, says minister
Sheffield has witnessed one of its biggest-ever campaigns to keep 16 post offices from closing and thousands of people have signed council-led petitions. Post Office Minister Pat McFadden MP spoke exclusively to The Star's Political Editor Lucy Ashton about what the future holds.
HE has to have one of the most unpopular jobs in Parliament.
Pat McFadden MP is the Government minister in charge of closing thousands of post offices nationwide.
There are 16 under threat in Sheffield, prompting one of the biggest campaigns the city has ever seen.
Almost 18,000 people have signed petitions to save their local branches and council leader Paul Scriven led a delegation to Downing Street to hand them in.
Mr McFadden is sympathetic to people's concerns but is upfront about the future of the network.
Post offices have been hit badly by technology. People used to queue out of the door to buy services over the counter but now stay at home and buy them online instead.
Mr McFadden said: "I understand no-one wants to see their local post office close and I understand a lot of people's concerns and the public opposition.
"But the problem is post offices are losing very significant amounts of money and these losses have been increasing.
"A few years ago post offices were losing 2 million a week but the losses are now 3.5 million a week. At the same time, the number of customers has gone down by four million every year.
"A large part of the problem is changes in technology. Readers of The Star will be paying for things online, using direct debits to pay their household bills and having their pension sent directly into the bank, and all these changes have a significant impact."
Mr McFadden realises post offices are the linchpin of many communities and says the Government has pumped money into them for that very reason.
But it can only support ailing businesses for so long.
"Post offices are viewed by the public and the Government as not just a commercial service," he said.
"Before the start of the closure programme there were just over 14,000 post offices. If the post offices had been run on a purely commercial basis, just to make money, there would only be about 4,000 of them.
"As a Government we have stepped in with very big subsidies to make sure thousands of unprofitable branches stay open.
"We have subsidised them by 150 million a year, which is 3 million a week, but we can't give unlimited subsidies when the losses are increasing and customers are declining.
"No Government would have an open cheque book. It is difficult but there has to be a limit to the subsidies."
Campaigners who have spent the past few weeks holding public meetings and collecting names on petitions may feel it was all in vain.
But Mr McFadden says there will still be plenty of post offices out there and the focus will be on protecting them.
"There is hope for the future of the post office network," he said. "We are getting to the end of the closure programme and we are looking to try to support the network which remains.
"We have to look at the future and that's why the Federation of Subpostmasters recognises the need for these closures, to secure the viability for the post offices that remain.
"There is a reason for optimism. More than 90 per cent of people will see no change in the post offices they use as most are staying open.
"The post office is the leading seller of foreign currency and also offers insurance, broadband services and a safe Christmas savings scheme.
"We can't get away from the overall level of losses but our emphasis is trying to work with remaining post offices to stabilise the network.
"The Government is putting in up to 1.7 billion in support over the next few years.
"I have a lot of sympathy but even after the closures we will have a post office network that is three times bigger than the top five supermarkets put together, with more branches than all the country's banks put together."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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