We're pleased to see a number of points of clarification by the Government, many of which echo the concerns we raised:

• The Govt accepts the need for continued subsidy to help sustain the post office network after the current agreement runs out in 2011 & to avoid a further closure programme. It's already in discussion with the Post Office about a future funding package

• It recognises post offices need to develop new business including banking and financial services. The BIS Committee is asking for more information as to how this can be achieved. Another way of enhancing the role of post offices could be through greater access to central and local government services

• We're pleased that the Post Office is in discussion with Credit Unions about making their services available through post offices. We believe this would be a very effective way of improving financial inclusion for rural areas where alternative sources of credit are often not available

• The Govt reiterates its acceptance of the important social role played by post offices and the need many individuals have for face to face contact including those who do not have access to a computer

We welcome these positive statements by Government and we look forward to a brighter future for post offices.

Download the full Government response to the BIS committee's inquiry

This will help ensure the future sustainability of the Post Office network and has the potential to provide access to essential services such as bank accounts, savings and loans to financially excluded people in rural areas.

Only 1 in 8 banks and building societies are located in rural areas although a fifth of the population live there. We hope today’s announcement will also prompt the exploration of partnerships between the Post Office and credit unions to assist financial inclusion in rural areas.

Read the full Government announcement

'Post offices - securing their future' also suggests the Post Office could provide a wider range of community services and calls on local authorities to use post offices to supply more of its services. The report notes that in deciding to support the retention of some post offices, Essex County Council took the view that an important part of aim in doing so was to counter isolation in communities.

Visit the Business & Enterprise Committee's website to find out more and download their report

We're pleased that the Committee has endorsed some of our findings and recomendations. Our evidence concentrated on:

• The role of the post office in providing a range of financial services for vulnerable people

• The scope for the post offices in providing banking services

• The case for partnership working between post offices and credit unions

• The importance of the post office to rural businesses, home-workers and self-employed people

• Relationship with the rural retail sector, in particular the last remaining shop in the village

• Emerging good practice by local authorities to retain post offices and rural businesses

• The case for local authorities to use the post office for more of its own services and to promote it as a community hub

• A need to evaluate the present outreach provision  before expanding this means of delivering services

Download our submission to the inquiry

These outreach services are often located in remote locations where it is no longer economic for the post office to provide a fixed counter service.

Although customers generally welcomed the outreach provision as a means of continuing to access post office services, some concerns were expressed about the service, including:

• Opening hours (often only a few hours a week) are sometimes felt to be too restrictive

• the service could be better marketed

• there were instances of equipment failure with little or no contingency backup

Consumer Focus are urging Post Office Ltd to address the issues outlined in the report

Download the report from the Consumer Focus website

Access to cash is a significant problem, especially for elderly and more vulnerable people, or where there is more limited access to transport.

A Post Bank would build on the welcome decision by the Government to award the Post Office a further contract until 2015 for the Post Office Card Account, which already provides for the payment in cash of pensions and other benefits.

• Financial inclusion

• Rural economies

• Local Authority initiatives

• Outreach services

The Business and Enterprise Committee have now launched  an online forum to listen to the views of individuals and businesses who use post offices. The posts they receive, with the written and oral evidence gathered during their inquiry, will help shape the recommendations the Committee makes to the Government in their report.

Make your contribution on the Committee's forum website

• Access to cash is a major problem. Around 300,000 people in rural England don't have a bank account

• only around one in eight banks and building societies are in rural areas, though a fifth of the population live there

• Less than 10% of all cash points are sited in rural areas and only 46% of these are free to use

The Post Office network has become an increasingly important means of addressing financial exclusion in rural areas. Allowing post offices to act more like banks would double the number of outlets and provide banking services to communities currently without provision.

There's also a case for post offices to become an outlet for local credit unions. Credit unions offer an alternative to mainstream financial institutions and provide local access to affordable credit and savings. This is particularly significant in the current economic downturn where there is a general reduction of credit and tighter lending terms.

To ensure the long term-sustainability of rural credit unions it will be important to develop their reach and capacity. A partnership with post offices would increase credit union coverage and help those in rural communities currently without access to mainstream banking services.

Find out more about our work on financial inclusion in rural areas

POCA is particularly important for rural residents and those without bank accounts who otherwise would have to travel further to access their benefits, state pensions and tax credit payments.

The rural population is increasingly ageing and faces added difficulties if essential services are removed. With the onset of economic recession there is an even greater need for people to have access to these vital local services.

We’re keen to help ensure the arrangements for the successor to POCA are rural proofed to provide an adequate level of coverage in rural areas.

Find out more about some of the work we've been doing on post offices in rural areas

The article looks at how rural areas are being affected by Post Office closures and how commmunities are coming together to explore different ways to retain post office services in their community.

Read the full article

We've been funding Rural Service Support to help provide national and local organisations with on-line access to experts who can help them plan for the future.

This rural|net service signposts organisations to solutions that may help them identify alternative ways of providing services for their communities.

It builds on the model pioneered in negotiations with Essex County Council and covers the financial, legal and practical issues that councils need to consider.

The guide was launched at LGA's annual conference at the beginning of July.

Download a copy of the guide from the LGA website

The Church of England, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church have worked closely with Post Office Ltd to identify opportunities for church buildings to host post office services to maintain their presence, particularly in isolated rural communities.

Find out more about how churches can help to keep vital services alive for rural communities

We're funding Rural Service Support, helping provide national and local organisations with on-line access to experts who can help them plan for the future.

Find out more about Rural Service Support

More about our work on Post Offices in Rural Areas

We're also funding Rural Service Support to help provide national and local organisations with on-line access to experts who can help them plan for the future and identify alternative ways of providing services for their communities..

You can read the report from the BERR committee on their website

The programme involves the closure of 2,500 offices throughout the U.K. but  with the installation of 500 ‘outreach’ points. The consultation is being rolled out through a series of more than 40 area plans over the period October 2007 to August 2008.

Our evidence concentrates on:

• the ongoing local public consultation process and the requirement for community involvement in deciding the form and location of outreach provision and the importance of allowing adequate time for this process

• the need to safeguard post offices in villages where these are combined with the sole remaining shop

• a concern that the Government’s access criteria may not give adequate consideration to social and economic factors in addition to purely distance from the nearest office

• specific needs of home-based workers and self-employed in rural areas
  

More about our work on Post Offices in Rural Areas

We're also funding Rural Service Support to help provide national and local organisations with on-line access to experts who can help them plan for the future and identify alternative ways of providing services for their communities..

You can read the report from the BERR committee on their website

We funded Rural Service Support, to help provide national and local organisations with on-line access to experts who can help them plan for the future.

This rural|net service signposts organisations to solutions that may help them identify alternative ways of providing services for their communities.

The report refers to our work on rural disadvantage and the Rural Advocate's report in its chapter on the rural network.