Business of the House

Andrew Western Excerpts

Thursday 11th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I am very sorry to hear about what has happened in the hon. Lady’s constituency, and I applaud the staff and trustees who continued undeterred to provide those services and support to their local communities. In such cases, I always hope that the public affairs departments of businesses—in this case Barclays—are listening in to business questions. If Barclays has not already made redress for this situation, I hope that it will get in touch with her office. I will ensure that the Minister has heard what has been said. The difficulty in these situations is not just that something happens and an account is frozen or closed, but that people are incapable of finding out why that has happened or trying to get it resolved. It is a shoddy situation and I hope Barclays will phone her this afternoon.

[Andrew Western (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

In August last year, Partington post office in my constituency closed, following the retirement of its long-serving postmistress. Partington is an isolated community, with low levels of car ownership and appalling public transport, and of course its town centre banks have long since closed. It is several miles to the nearest main post office—or, for those without transport, a multiple-hour round trip. May we have a debate in Government time on the support available to post offices in isolated communities that do not qualify for the rural support services grant, but where it is incredibly challenging for those communities to reach other post offices, to ensure that those services remain in communities such as Partington?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising this issue. He will know that it is covered by work undertaken by the Post Office Minister and by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which runs a successful scheme looking at how services might be retained in the local community, even if the bricks and mortar of the post office have been stood down. The next questions to the Department, which I think runs that best practice scheme, are on 22 January, so the hon. Gentleman might wish to raise the matter then, but I will also ensure that both relevant Ministers have heard his concerns and ask their offices to get in touch with him.