§ 8. David Taylor (North-West Leicestershire)If she will make a statement on recent progress with the urban network reinvention programme. [130823]
§ The Minister for Energy, E-Commerce and Postal Services (Mr. Stephen Timms)I refer my hon. Friend to my earlier answer.
§ David TaylorNotwithstanding the Minister's earlier answer, does he not accept that the Post Office is conducting the network review in a somewhat confused, incoherent and clumsy fashion while the benefit payment hotline is without doubt coercing some card account applicants into considering direct payment instead? Does he therefore understand why so many of us fear that the present unacceptable rate of branch closure will accelerate unless and until the assetstripping top management is replaced by those with a vision of a vibrant third-millennium Post Office?
§ Mr. TimmsI think it has been a rather good 24 hours for the Post Office management. I do not agree with my hon. Friend about the urban reinvention programme. However, I think that he will welcome the different arrangements that I have described, which will apply from hereon, because they will provide the opportunity for a strategic overview to be taken of the pattern of the post office network throughout an area, as my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Northfield (Richard Burden) said.
On the helpline, I told the House that the evidence is that pensioners are getting the information they want. They are finding it helpful. My hon. Friend will be aware that people are increasingly choosing to use bank accounts. Some 43 per cent. of benefit customers now do that—up from just 26 per cent. in 1996—and 60 per cent. 1065 of new pensioners have already chosen a bank account in which to receive their pension. The Post Office needs to adapt to the new environment and new needs.
§ Miss Anne McIntosh (Vale of York)Will the Minister confirm that no customer will be more than 1 mile from a post office under the urban network reinvention programme? What is the comparable figure for rural post office customers?
§ Mr. TimmsThe requirement that we have placed on the Post Office is that 95 per cent. of urban residents should be within 1 mile of their local post office at the end of the process compared with something like 97 per cent. today. I do not have the comparable figure for rural post offices, although I shall send that to the hon. Lady.