1 in 5 people face isolation if rural post offices close
Our research shows they’re at the heart of rural communities — and vital for innovative rural businesses
There are few day-to-day tasks you can’t now do online. You can monitor your home’s energy use and open the door for parcel deliveries when you’re out. At the same time, fewer and fewer people live in rural areas. It would probably be no surprise to hear that post offices and bank branches, which provide physical access to essential services, are closing in rural areas.
But this is only half right.
Bank branches are closing
Over 1,500 have shut since 2015. In fact, the total number has more than halved over the past 30 years. Bank branches usually close when they have fewer customers (like in rural areas) or where they handle relatively low value transactions (like in deprived areas).
More and more of us are banking online. The share of people using internet banking regularly has risen from 30% of the population in in 2007 to 63% in 2017. But vulnerable people — such as older or disabled people — are particularly reliant on accessing banking and bank accounts in branches.
Post offices are not closing
You may be surprised to hear that in contrast to bank branches, the total number of post offices has remained flat since 2010 at around 11,600. There has been no closure programme. Instead, the government invested £2 billion in post offices to make them more sustainable. This has included support for 3,000 ‘community’ branches that are the last shop in a village. Thanks in part to this investment, there are more post offices in the UK than branches of all the high street banks combined.
The total number of post offices hasn’t changed since 2010
Post offices have been a centre for communication and social life in communities for centuries. Many have assumed that they are particularly important to rural communities — this is why the government has been supporting ‘community’ post offices. But new research from Citizens Advice provides robust evidence for why and how they are important.
People in rural areas rely on post offices
Almost 10 million people live in rural communities in the UK. The government recognises that rural areas are important, and need special attention in policy.
Get Thomas Brooks’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Our research shows that post offices are at the heart of rural communities. For a start, 1 in 5 people told us they would lose contact with neighbours or friends if it wasn’t for their local post office.
When other businesses have closed down, post offices can act as local hubs. 7 in 10 rural consumers buy essential items like groceries and food at post offices when they visit. Almost 3 million rural shoppers visit a post office on a weekly basis — that’s 31% compared 21% of people living in cities.
537,000 businesses are registered in rural areas, accounting for 1 in 4 of all companies. And they are creative — almost half are considered to be innovators. These places contribute well over £200 billion to our economy.
Rural small businesses are more likely to use post offices to send deliveries and pay bills. They are twice as likely to use them to withdraw or deposit cash. We found that 8 in 10 small businesses in remote rural areas would lose money if local post offices were closed.
The government must continue to support rural branches
The proportion of people in rural areas using post offices weekly has dropped from 56% in 2005 to 31% today.
When you dig deeper, you see that some services are getting more important — sending parcels and accessing cash, for example.
Rural consumers are using parcel, passport currency and banking services more than they did in 2005
This raises interesting questions about what post offices must do to remain relevant. Post offices can continue to pick up slack as banks and shops close in rural areas. They can also try to support growth in activities like online shopping.
Last December the government consulted on how (or even whether) it should continue to subsidise the network of post offices across the country. Our new research clearly shows that community branches should continue to receive financial support.
The government has not yet responded to the consultation, so it should take the next opportunity — ideally next week’s Budget — to commit to providing the necessary support to keep rural post offices open.
As the official consumer watchdog for postal consumers, we will continue looking out for rural consumers. We are currently researching whether community-run post offices — currently used in around 200 communities — could provide a wider solution. We are also mapping competition between post and parcel operators to see how well they are serving rural areas.
You can read our full report here.
