Concentrate on customer services, not post office numbers, says Postcomm

26 September 2001

Postcomm today called for a more imaginative approach to delivering post office services, particularly to those customers who find it difficult to get to a post office. It said more emphasis should be put on availability of services and less on the absolute number of post offices.

In its first annual report on the post office network to Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Postcomm underlines the vulnerability of elderly people, those with disabilities, single parents, the less well off and those without transport, to the closure of a local post office.

Postcomm recommends that Consignia intensifies its efforts to provide alternative ways of delivering post office services to disadvantaged customers – including learning from the home delivery methods used in the rest of Europe.

Graham Corbett, chairman of Postcomm said: “In many European countries, including France, Germany, Denmark and Sweden, postmen not only deliver letters but provide other post office services – including taking cash to people’s doors. Subject to suitable security arrangements, it may be possible to try something similar here. We have asked Consignia to look into this.”

Consignia already uses mobile post offices and so-called ‘satellite’ services in areas without a post office. In a satellite arrangement a sub postmaster travels to neighbouring villages one or two days a week, providing post office services from the village hall or other suitable premises. At the moment 19 satellites are operating in the UK.

Changes in society mean that many people use post offices near where they work or shop rather than where they live, the report says.  They also make payments by direct debit, get money from cash machines, use the Internet for communication and buy stamps from other outlets. The closure of a local post office causes particular difficulty where there are no other services nearby such as shops, banks or cash machines.

Subpostmasters with only a handful of customers cannot be expected to keep post offices open indefinitely. Of the 441 rural post offices that closed in 2000/01 the report says:

  • more than half were serving less than 70 customers a week – some only had 10 customers
  • nearly 40% had no attached business – not even, for example, selling cards and stationery
  • around 85% of their customers had another post office within two miles of the closed office.

Notes for editors

Postcomm’s report contains new information about the post office network and its customers. It was gathered from Consignia data and from new research undertaken for Postcomm by Environmental Resources Management (ERM) working with MORI and the South East Regional Research Laboratory at Birkbeck College London (SERRL).  Researchers conducted interviews with more than 4000 households and post office customers and interviewed more than 100 subpostmasters.

At the end of March 2001, there were 17,846 post offices trading, following 547 net closures – including 106 in urban areas -- in the preceding 12 months. In the same period, 1,290 businesses containing a post office changed hands and 169 post offices re-opened in communities where a post office had previously closed.

The Government has placed a formal requirement on the Post Office Network (the part of Consignia responsible for the network of post offices) to prevent all avoidable post office closures in rural areas, initially until 2006.

Almost all UK post offices, (97%), are privately owned; subpostmasters operate as agents to Consignia. Post offices close when no replacement sub-postmaster comes forward to take over existing premises, or no new premises can be found when former premises are converted to residential use. Consignia directly operates 598 post offices.

This is Postcomm’s first annual report to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on developments in the network, particularly post offices in rural or deprived urban areas. Based on Postcomm’s research, the report covers the role of post offices in local communities and includes analysis at regional and devolved administration level.

The report, Post offices, customers and communities is available from Postcomm at 6 Hercules Road, London SE1 7DB. Copies of the ERM/MORI/SERRL research carried out for Postcomm are available from ERM at 8 Cavendish Square, London W1M 0ER, Tel: 020 7465 7368, email: Lvb@ermuk.com.

More information on Postcomm's work in relation to post offices.