Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Post Office receives extra £370m of Government funding to stop village branch closures

The Post Office has moved into profit for the first time in 16 years, but critics say this has been achieved on the back of cuts and job losses

 

Stephen Little
Wednesday 20 December 2017 13:49 GMT
Comments
The three-year funding deal starts from next April
The three-year funding deal starts from next April

The Post Office is to receive £370m of extra funding to help protect village branches and modernise the service, the Government has announced.

The three-year funding deal, which will start from next April, comes as the Post Office moved into profit for the first time in 16 years.

Around £160m will be used to help to protect community branches, while a further £210m will be invested in continuing to modernise the network.

The Government said that it had invested more than £2bn in the service since 2010 and it is now the largest Sunday retailer in the UK with more than 4,400 branches open on Sundays.

The state-owned limited company also revealed that it had made £13m in the last financial year.

“The Post Office is at the heart of communities across the UK, with millions of customers and small businesses relying on their local branch every day to access a wide range of important services,” business secretary Greg Clark said.

“With the network at its most stable in decades, this £370m of Government funding will ensure it can continue to modernise and bring further benefits to customers across the UK,” he added.

Paula Vennells, chief executive of the Post Office, described the return to profit as a “major milestone in the Post Office’s journey to [becoming] a sustainable and successful business”.

“We’re fulfilling the promises we have made, and this is recognised by the government’s further investment in the Post Office, which will enable us to continue transforming the business to meet our customers’ changing needs – a transformation that has already seen us make significant progress,” she said.

“For over 370 years, the Post Office has stayed relevant to communities the length and breadth of the UK by changing and adapting. With the Post Office now trading at a profit, we are better placed than ever to embrace the future,” she added.

However, trade unions criticised the decision, saying that profits had been achieved on the back of sweeping cuts to the service.

Brian Scott from the Unite union said the Post Office lacked a “coherent strategy” for the future and that the rise in profits was down to a “slash and burn” approach to jobs.

A spokesperson from the Communication Workers Union said: “While the Post Office and government are dressing this up as good news, in reality the Post Office is facing a significant cut in government funding for the next three years.

“The announcement marks a continuation of this strategy and is bad news for communities that rely on post offices across the country. Far from modernising the network this is managing its decline."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in