Rishi Sunak MP has welcomed £370m of Government funding for Britain’s post office network.
Of that funding boost, £160m has been earmarked to protect the rural post office network, particularly those community branches which serve as the “last shop in a village.”
The Richmond MP said: “This money brings to £2bn the total spent by the Government on the Post Office network and it is gratifying to see the rate of branch closures slowing.
“The money will help to keep these vital community assets trading while also helping to continue the modernisation of the network and make Post Office services more accessible to people where and when they want to use them.”
“Post Offices are becoming more and more important with the contraction of the bank branch network so this is good news for rural communities.”
Mr Sunak added that the new investment, which will run from April 2018 to March 2021, would deliver on a manifesto commitment to safeguard the post office network, to protect existing rural services and extend the availability of banking services to families and small businesses in rural areas.
Today 99% of UK personal bank customers and 95% of small business customers can access day-to-day banking services in branch and last year the Post Office helped customers carry out 110 million banking transactions, an average of 200 a minute.
The funding agreement comes as the Post Office moved into profit in 2017 for the first time in 16 years, making the business less reliant on Government subsidies.
The Richmond MP has backed communities which have fought to retain their post offices. Last year he worked alongside villagers to ensure the re-opening of the post office at Appleton Wiske, near Northallerton, following the retirement of the former postmaster.