Following a Parliamentary debate in the House of Commons on the 15th October 2002, the Government made up to £180 million available to Post Office Ltd to carry out its "Urban Reinvention Programme". This was in response to the Performance and Innovation Unit report recommendation that if the Post Office decided that fewer offices were needed in some urban areas, the Government should consider providing financial assistance to ensure that sub-postmasters were adequately compensated for the loss of value of their business. A further £30 million was made available on a matched funding basis for improvements to those offices which expected to see a significant increase in business as a result of a nearby closure under the programme.

Related Information
® Parliamentary Debate - the 15th October 2002

Post Office Limited ("POL") are in the final stages of restructuring the urban post office network through the managed reduction of some 2,500 branches in order to create a sustainable network providing good customer access and putting more business in the remaining branches. This has obviously been a difficult period of change and there have been some strong feelings regarding the programme.

POL did not have a predetermined list of offices which would close under their urban reinvention programme, nor was there any arithmetical formula which determined the number of closures in any given area. Proposals for closures under the programme were determined by how many offices were close to each other in the area, current and projected business volumes and whether individual sub-postmasters had indicated that they wanted to leave the network. Factors of high importance to customers were also carefully considered. These included proximity and convenience of access of other branches, public transport links, facilities for the disabled and the ability of other branches to absorb the work without detriment to service.

Before any changes were made, a formal consultation process was carried out, in accordance with a Code of Practice on post office closures (agreed between Postwatch and the Post Office), with local communities, interest groups, councillors, MPs and Postwatch.

The Government did not have a role to play in decisions on individual urban post office closures and if you have any questions in this area you should contact POL or Postwatch.

Related website links
® Post Office Limited - http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po
® Postwatch - http://www.postwatch.co.uk