Revitalising the Post Office through local banking
New Post Bank report shows lifeline for network
The Post Bank Coalition has launched a report outlining how a publicly owned Post Bank could revitalise the post office network and bring trusted banking services to businesses and communities across the UK.
With the funding for the post office network unclear and the potential for more post office closures looming, the future of the country’s post offices and the sub-postmasters that run them is uncertain.
The first comprehensive critique of the government’s report Securing the Post Office in the Digital Age, the Post Bank Coalition outlines areas where Government policy is failing, including:
· 240 sub-post offices closed in the eighteen months between April 2009 and October 2010 outside of any programme of compensated closures
· The Bank of Irelandpartnership has failed to deliver current or children’s accounts or business banking services or to pay a single dividend to the Post Office
· The effect of a post office closure on the turnover of small and medium businesses within half a mile would be around £270,000 loss p/a for the local economy.
The report is being launched at a Parliamentary roundtable event at 9am Thursday 14th July hosted by Nia Griffith MP with speakers from Unite and the Federation of Small Businesses, and attendees from the Post Office Advisory Group and MPs involved with the Postal Services Act.
The Post Bank Coalition argue in the report, Sorted!: Revitalising the Post Office through local banking:
· that the services offered by the Post Office need to be expanded if it is to meet the needs of small businesses and communities and if the network is to survive;
· that that the current joint venture with the Bank of Ireland is no longer fit for purpose and that there needs to be a new model for banking services at the Post Office;
· that a publicly owned Post Bank in the UK – mirroring those seen in a number of other countries – would support the network and bring much needed diversity to the financial sector.
· that without a Post Bank the network faces a long decline leading to the loss of a cherished public institution and that a significant opportunity to create a socially useful bank will be lost.
CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said: “Post Bank offers an opportunity to solve two major issues facing the country – saving our post office network and bringing trusted banking to communities everywhere. This is a gift to the government, an all-round good news story and an initiative which would bring real, measurable positive change to Post Office staff who are fearing for their jobs and to businesses and communities struggling to find suitable local banking. We urge the government to embrace Post Bank and take measures to make it a reality.”
Clive Davenport, Trade and Industry Chairman, Federation of Small Businesses, said:
“Following the crisis in the banking sector and with the demise of the Post Office Network, we have long been saying that creating a Post Bank is the perfect opportunity to help tackle these. We know from our research that small businesses rely on their local Post Office to not only send and receive parcels, but to make payments as well. We also know that banks still aren’t lending to small firms. The UKbanking system really needs more competition to give small firms a better chance of securing a good deal. Creating a Post Bank will not only help to do this, but it will also help keep the thousands of sub-postmasters’ businesses alive.”
Alice Barnard, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: “In the wake of the banking crisis, people living in the countryside have increasingly come to rely on their local Post Office. Yet after seven years of the partnership between Post Office Ltd and the Bank of Ireland, there is still no provision of current accounts, children’s savings accounts or business accounts. The Countryside Alliance want to see Post Offices given the services to remain the social and economic centres of rural Britain. We are proud to be supporting the Post Bank proposal alongside organisations like the Communication Workers Union and the Federation of Small Businesses, and we call on the Government to recognise that backing the creation of a Post Bank will be a massive boost to both the rural economy and to the future of the Post Office network.”
Dot Gibson, National Pensioners Convention general secretary said: "Post Offices remain a vital part of our local communities and a lifeline to millions of pensioners, but they urgently need investment and expansion if they are to survive. Creating a real people's bank at the Post Office would act as a positive alternative to the stale banking industry that has caused so much financial damage. We need bank we can trust and that's the Post Bank."
Ian Tonks, Unite national officersaid: “Communities and small businesses are crying out for an ethical, and local bank based on the post office network. This is the only real answer to making the post office network truly sustainable. Failure by government to respond positively will be an abrogation of its responsibility and another signal of its lack of commitment to the real society”
Stewart Wallis, director of nef, said: “UK plc needs an urgent shot in the arm. We believe that the Post Bank can deliver this much needed boost to businesses that the mainstream banking sector has failed time and again. It will also provide people with a trusted institution to bank with, open to everyone. Politicians of all parties have voiced their enthusiasm for the Post Bank, and the idea resonates with the public. Now let’s make it happen.”