Richard Johnstone in Birmingham | 19 September 2011
The Post Office should become a co-operative, postal minister Ed Davey told the Liberal Democrat conference.
Speaking to delegates this morning, he said that he was putting forward a proposal that would deliver ‘liberal values’ by turning the Post Office ‘into a mutual, a co-operative, instead of being a nationalised industry’.
Davey, the minister for employment relations, consumer and postal affairs in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, said that this was the best way to protect the future of post offices, ‘ensuring that sub-postmasters, employees and local communities work together’.
Announcing that ‘the days of closure programmes of local post offices are over’, he told delegates that he also wanted the Post Office to become ‘the front office for government’.
He highlighted Westminster Council, which has awarded the Post Office a contract to provide six services, including council tax payments and parking permits. Another 25 councils will be invited to undertake a similar scheme later this month.
Davey said: ‘If you are one of the people who I write to, say yes. [There are] no guaranteed contracts here – post offices will have to compete. But I’m telling every Post Office manager there’s a business opportunity here they can seize.’
