Neil Coyle

I was pleased to support the hon. Member for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos) in securing the debate. It was not the first time I helped him as, in a funny quirk of fate, I house sat for him more than 20 years ago— I think it was 22 years ago, but he is welcome to correct the record if I have got the dates wrong. I thank my London Bridge post office manager Priya and her dedicated team, including Clive and the Communication Workers Union members whom I am proud to serve. They in turn support and serve the London Bridge and Borough High Street community in extremely busy circumstances with massive footfall. That is why there is so much concern about the branch, as demonstrated by the petition to save the London Bridge post office started by London Bridge and West Bermondsey councillors Emily Hickson, Sam Dalton and Sunil Chopra. Hundreds of people have already signed that petition, which is on change.org, should anyone want to add their signature. I went to the branch two weeks ago to meet the team and saw for myself how busy and loved it was. My constituent Mary—a lovely older lady—was there paying her rent at the time, but it is not just old ladies using post offices. This post office demonstrates how a diverse range of post offices is affected across the country as this branch is hugely busy and serves a massive and vibrant business community at Borough Market and around London Bridge. Of course, it also has London’s fourth-busiest train station right on its doorstep, providing commuter customers on Borough High Street. I visited specifically because of the question mark over the branch’s status. I thank the Post Office for answering some of my questions and for joining me on that visit, but it is disappointing that the branch is in that position, not least because we have a new ministerial team, Government Ministers have stated that there will be £50 million of additional funding and there remains a commitment from the Government to ensuring that every community has access to a post office branch, which is incredibly welcome. I am proud to have stood and won last year on a manifesto that said Labour would look for ways to strengthen the network in consultation with sub-postmasters, trade unions and customers. I am glad that the Government formally recognise that “The UK-wide Post Office branch network is an essential part of the UK’s economic infrastructure, supporting high streets” and “businesses”. That is incredibly refreshing after years of mismanagement and mixed messages from mixed Ministers from two different parties since 2010. It is really useful to see the Minister in his place. We may disagree on one issue during the six nations, but he has been a massive champion of post offices and has said on the record that the Post Office should do more when it comes to providing banking services. He has been a doughty champion for the Co-operative party and a champion of post offices having a broader banking and financial footfall, whether that be through a credit union or banking. I hope to hear more from him on those issues. Like posties, he now has to deliver in office as a Minister. [Hon. Members: “Oh.”] Thank you. I hope that we will hear when the Green Paper will be published. I think the aim is by the end of July. I hope that it will cover Link and the access to cash campaign, which is already part of that discussion, and that there will be space to talk about the future of business rates for post offices and whether there could be a community interest exemption. I want to flag up a couple of concerns about how the London Bridge branch has been handled by the Post Office. It has an incredibly small team of less than 10 full-time equivalent, and they are incredibly busy, but they have met every target set by the Post Office, including a currency transfer increase last year of more than 20%—we are talking about millions of pounds there. The team have taken on additional services where possible, but those services they have lost have been the responsibility of the Post Office nationally and not the local branch. Sadly, they feel blamed for national Post Office failures. Rent is also not the local branch’s responsibility; it does not determine the rent that it pays for its prime Borough High Street location. It is disappointing that the Post Office did not seek a rent reduction in 2020. I saw how, during the covid crisis, rents for commercial and residential premises fell for the first time in the 20 years I have lived in the borough. However, the Post Office failed to negotiate or seek a reduction. That is not the responsibility of the individual staff, who feel they are now being held culpable for a failure that sits elsewhere. It is hard to imagine an equivalent site locally that would be cheaper. If the branch moved away from its high street location, it would lose business and commuter footfall, which could reduce turnover. Those making decisions need to be mindful of that. As was mentioned by the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael), there is a lack of respect shown to customers and the workforce in the handling of this. Specifically on this site, the Post Office website said that an alternative provider was available on Blackfriars Road. Well, the Post Office shut that post office two years ago this month. It was supposed to reopen—the Post Office said it had bidders for it last summer—but, since my visit two weeks ago, the Post Office has now stated that it will not reopen the Blackfriars Road site at all, which is a massive disappointment for many in SE1 and the local area. The failure to communicate that—again, not a local responsibility—shows a lack of respect. The Post Office is supposed to follow principles of community engagement in how it handles these issues, but that has not been the case in Blackfriars. It must not happen again. For people worried about that specific site, I want to flag up that there is a lot of interest in running it with an alternative provider. However, that must not come at a loss of services or a loss of rights for the workforce that the state picks up down the line, and all costs must be taken into account. When more is known—we think that will be in April—I will organise a public meeting with local representatives of the Post Office, the CWU and others, which I will advertise as soon as I can for everyone worried about this great community asset.