By Tash Shifrin
The government has lent its support to the idea of a Post Office ‘people’s bank’ – but does not want to fund its development.
The government has lent its support to the idea of a Post Office ‘people’s bank’ – but does not want to fund its development.The initiative also won support from the Conservatives, despite the fact that the party sold off the Post Office’s Girobank in 1990, when it was in government.
Post Office minister Pat McFadden told a campaign launch meeting that banking services had the ‘potential to be a really important part of post offices’ work in the years to come’.
At the meeting, held in Parliament on March 17, McFadden told a coalition of unions, small businesses and pressure groups: ‘Post Office management are very firmly focused on this and I think it could be a significant part of attracting more people to come and use the post office.’
The Post Bank coalition, led by the Communications Workers Union, believes the initiative could help sustain the post office network in future and provide services to up to 3 million people who are not served by high- street banks.
But the minister sidestepped the coalition’s call for the government to fund the initiative, possibly through the issue of local bonds. He noted that the Post Office at the moment provides its banking services in partnership with the Bank of Ireland, while the coalition argued for ‘a different method’.
A spokesman for the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform told Public Finance: ‘They want the government to invest money, and that’s not where we are.’
A Conservative spokeswoman said the party welcomed the Post Bank proposals, telling PF: ‘It’s about time.’
The Tories had been arguing for the Post Office to ‘diversify and look at different business offerings’ as part of its campaign to keep local offices open.
The government had been slow to take up such moves, she argued, saying: ‘They’ve had 12 years to do this.’
CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said: ‘The Post Bank is the right proposal at the right time politically and industrially. It answers the needs of the financially excluded and will appeal to many in this time of economic uncertainty.’
