Rural post offices will be safeguarded

Author: Daily Telegraph   |  

Under the Conservative plans, the viability of post offices would be judged against new guidelines including determining whether they offer a social service to the elderly and young families.

The new policy is part of a range of measures they will unveil as part of a strategy to deal with what they say is Labour’s “decade of disrespect” towards the countryside.

A report by MPs lays bare the continued threat to post offices.

It reveals that thousands more post offices could be allowed to close because the Government has failed to provide a written guarantee of the size of the current branch network.

he news comes despite assurances from Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, that the number of post offices in Britain would not would not fall below the current level of 12,000.

However MPs on the Business and Enterprise Committee warned that the current method used to calculate the size of the branch network could see thousands more closed.

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