Government rapped by MPs over post office closures

The Government was accused today of showing a "real lack of concern" for people affected by the thousands of post office closures in recent years.

A committee of MPs said only a small percentage of people were even aware of consultations before offices shut and complained that local concerns were "in effect ignored".

The Public Accounts Committee called on the Government and the Post Office to improve consultations over future closures to prevent the process being brought into "disrepute".

Committee chairman Edward Leigh (Conservative Gainsborough), said: "The closure of the local post office can be a real blow to the community. So the inadequate assessment by the Department of the social and economic costs of its programme to close some 2,500 post offices showed a real lack of concern for the citizens affected.

"The consultation process appeared to the public as little more than a piece of window dressing for a decision which to all intents and purposes had already been taken. The consultations to which Post Office Ltd has committed itself on any future proposals for permanent closure of branches must allow the public to have a real influence on the outcomes."

Mr Leigh said the Business Department had not made clear what a sustainable post office network would look like, adding: "It should set out its expectations concerning the size, spread and composition of the network it is striving to achieve. It should also clarify what it intends to do regarding any of the outreach services closed in the light of reviews of their first year of operation.

"In view of the distress and upheaval caused to rural and urban communities by the closure programme and the less than impressive financial benefits - a forecast saving of £45 million a year from 2011/12, following a loss of £17 million in each of the five preceding years - compulsory closures of post offices should in future be a last resort, not a first."

National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP) general secretary George Thomson said: "The NFSP has been bitterly disappointed with ministers' failure so far to champion the network and to make better use of its unrivalled levels of public trust and geographical reach as the natural home for many government services."

Andy Burrows, of Consumer Focus, said: "After the pain of so many closures, the UK deserves a modern, viable post office network that meets the needs of the communities it serves."

Minister for Postal Affairs Lord Young said: "The Post Office closures which have taken place over the past year were difficult but necessary to reduce losses in a network that was losing half a million pounds a day and to ensure the viability of the rest of the network.

"Now that the closures have taken place and Post Office Limited is on a more sound financial footing, the Government has made it clear that it will not support another round of Post Office closures."