Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

Post Office Services Debate

Mr. Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con): That news will be of great concern to old people in Reigate, where three post offices have been closed—in fact, the latest one is closing on Saturday—and they are left with the main post office in Reigate, which is hosted by Safeway. Morrisons, which is taking over Safeway, has been quite unable to provide me with any reassurance that the post office will stay open. Meanwhile, the Post Office is pressing ahead with closing the branch in Holmesdale road. It is a dreadful state of affairs if it cannot guarantee to pay people their money. The reinvention programme should be stopped immediately until the matter can be sorted out.

Mr. Willetts: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. He rightly draws my attention to the fact that, given all the changes in the world of supermarkets at the moment—in my constituency, Tesco has just taken over our local one-stop shop—many of the established arrangements for post offices in such shops are in question. That is another source of uncertainty and instability. I hope again that we will hear from the Secretary of State about what steps she is taking given that significant communities—towns—face the uncertainty that my hon. Friend describes.