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Post Offices: Rural Areas

Asked by James CartlidgeConservativeDepartment for Business and TradeTabled Answered 9 October 2024UIN 6338

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to support rural post offices.

Answered by Gareth Thomas

There are over 11,500 post office branches in the UK – over half are in rural areas – which the Government supports through an annual £50m network subsidy to ensure the viability of rural and community branches.

Government further works to ensure Post Office Limited maintains a minimum number of branches and a geographical spread of branches in line with published access criteria. The access criteria ensure that however the network changes, services remain within local reach of all citizens.

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