POST OFFICE NETWORK

That this House notes the vital importance of the Post Office network to communities both urban and rural; believes that the Post Office network is well placed to deliver a range of financial services and products which would assist in combating financial exclusion; further believes that the Post Office network offers an opportunity to act as an advisory interface between the state and the citizen in matters such as benefit and tax credit; and further believes that in light of the Hooper Review the Post Office network must be ring-fenced as a discrete, publicly owned network, and that the Government should invest in the network to create a postbank and advisory service.