Bank Plan For Post Office - Step Toward Privatisation Of Royal Mail?

The CWU in the North West welcomes reports that the Government are actively considering plans to develop the 12,000-strong Post Office network into a nation-wide bank, the “People’s Bank”. The CWU has long argued for such a move, which would allow the Post Office Network to offer current accounts, debit and credit cards and mortgages. This would not only benefit people who, at present, have difficulty accessing such facilities, either through geographical isolation or financial status, but would also secure the future of the Network and may even lead to the re-opening of some offices that have closed down. As CWU General Secretary Billy Hayes has stated, “This is an idea whose time has surely come.”

What we do not accept, however, is that these plans somehow make the proposals to part-privatise Royal Mail more palatable. The two issues are not connected. If anything, the decision to create a source of public finance through the Post Office Network makes the idea of privatising the Royal Mail half of the Post Office even less understandable. To argue that the solution to the problems facing Royal Mail is an infusion of private funding and know-how is scarcely credible in the current economic climate. The CWU believe that with Government support and a management committed to the ethos of public service and working with the trade union, the future of Royal Mail as a business providing an excellent service at an affordable price lies in the public sector.

What would be totally unacceptable, both to the CWU and to voters of all persuasions, is if the reports of the “People’s Bank” were merely a cynical ploy to draw fire from the mounting opposition in Parliament to the proposals put forward by Peter Mandelson. Establishing banking facilities in Post Offices would take some time to materialise. Could it be that once their legislation on Royal Mail has gone through, all talk of the “People’s Bank” will quietly fade away? The CWU believe that the issues involved in this are far too important to allow this to happen.

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