NFSP calls on government to save UK post office network

The National Federation of SubPostmasters (NSFP)—a trade association representing mainly independent businesspeople operating Post Office branches across the UK—has called for government intervention as the Post Office network has “been taken beyond a tipping point”.

In a report submitted to the government’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee, the NSFP noted that around 1,000 Post Office branches were now listed as closed, with two thirds of closures due to the resignation of the subpostmaster.

The report claims that the network will not survive if the government ends its subsidy as planned in 2021, with 3,000 community branches at risk of closing.

According to a survey by the NSFP, 22% of subpostmasters plan on either closing or downsizing their post office over the next year, while more than three quarters of the survey’s 1,000 respondents made less than the hourly National Minimum Wage from the job.

NFSP members felt “marginalised” and “disenfranchised” by the government, the Post Office and the Royal Mail, the industry’s major stakeholders.

Source: Post & Parcel

Header image: Johannes Plenio