Government Subsidy Comes At Price For Rural Post Offices

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 16th Sep 2004

Commenting on £300m of additional funding for the rural post office network for the years 2006-08, Malcolm Bruce MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow DTI Secretary, said:

"This is just a drip feed for a chronically ill service. For all her boasts, Patricia Hewitt knows that the network still faces no viable business future on current projections.

"Virtually the entire rural network is currently unviable, but at least we had a commitment from the Government that they would do everything they could to prevent avoidable closures.

"Given that the Government is now redefining 'unavoidable' to allow for closures where there is no viable future for a post office, this will inevitably lead to an acceleration in rural post office closures.

"Few rural post offices will be able to find a buyer for the business or a replacement on retirement until there is a long term business plan. "We all know that the rural network is in decline, so why has it taken the Government this long to invest in schemes that could secure the future of rural post offices?

"There is nothing in this statement which will give sub-postmasters and people living in rural areas confidence that their local branch has a chance of survival."