Local Post Offices

Gagan Mohindra Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gagan Mohindra (South West Hertfordshire) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos) on securing this Backbench Business debate. I also thank Nik Frost and Emily Pidgeon from my office for doing the research for this and other speeches that I have made in recent days.

We all know that post offices are critically important assets to our communities. I know that your own post office in Romsey is under threat as a main hub, Madam Deputy Speaker; I know you do not have the ability to voice that, so I shall do so on your behalf.

I am lucky enough to represent seven post offices in South West Hertfordshire. In my first term as a Member of Parliament, Chorleywood port office was closed, having shut in 2019—not for reasons decided by headquarters; there was a local issue—and it took several years before that post office was brought back online. I thank the retailer Lord’s for incorporating the post office into its retail area to ensure that my community could continue to access the excellent services offered by the Post Office.

During the global pandemic, we saw how critical community assets and community spirit were to the health and wellbeing of our residents. They are the unsung heroes of our communities. Most post office staff will see their regulars on a frequent basis, and will quickly identify it if they have not been seen or do not look well; while not professionals like pharmacists, opticians or GPs, they are a set of eyes and ears on how their customers are doing.

Through various announcements, recently and over the past few years, we have seen the demise of high street banks. I am a former furniture retailer, and it still makes me sad that our high streets are not what they once were. Post offices are one of the few beacons left on high streets up and down our country; while there is an absolute draw to online retail, and I am a free marketeer, I know that if we do not continue to support our post offices, we will live to regret it. We must protect the assets that we really care about, and I include the post office in that.

I know that my community cares about this as well. When Croxley Green post office was under threat, I got a lot of correspondence asking me to be proactive. Fortunately, the Post Office decided to stop its plans to review that particular post office, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. I know from colleagues that their inboxes are filling up with concerns from constituents about what they value. It is the silent majority who will be adversely affected if we do not speak up and support our post offices.

I fully support the move towards banking hubs. It makes sense to ensure that communities are drawn to critical assets such as our post offices. It is my understanding that the agreement for the Post Office to provide banking hubs ends at the end of this year. I urge the Minister to reassure the House that if that is the case, he will look into it, and ensure that the Post Office quickly gets into negotiations with retail banks to ensure they are viable. With more and more people having less access to cash, the Post Office remains one of the few community hubs in areas where our constituents can always go and get cash out.

It is not all easy for the Post Office: I do not want to get party political, but post offices will now have a £45 million additional bill because of the national insurance jobs tax, and there has been a significant increase in business rates within the estate. While the drive for technology is important, the Government, in my view, need to look at how they can support places like our post offices to ensure that they remain commercially viable. I can assure the Minister that he will have my support if he is able to do so.