THE Post Office could scrap its 11,500-branch requirement and become employee-owned under government plans denounced as “nothing more than managed decline” today by the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) stressed that its current level of funding to the Post Office is “unsustainable” in the long-term.

In a green paper, it said that the organisation should be able to self-fund investment in its network and postmasters and that the Post Office’s minimum branch requirement had become “more challenging and costly.”

The DBT suggested turning the organisation into a “mutual” whereby it is collectively owned by its members.

But this would not be considered until after 2030 and the Post Office “should be financially and operationally stable before mutualisation can be considered,” said the government.

A three-month consultation into the future of Post Offices has been launched.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “Successive governments have failed the Post Office, its workers and customers — and choosing to use government subsidies for planned redundancies, closures and so-called transformation plans that are nothing more than managed decline.

“This Labour government is unashamedly doing exactly the same as the Tories did — managing the politics of the Post Office, prioritising further cost-cutting and offering no vision for its future.

“The only way to build a successful future is to bring Royal Mail and the Post Office back together through a new joint venture ownership model, building on the golden share the government has recently taken in Royal Mail.”

He said that this model would mean postmasters get higher pay and “major compensation for the appalling injustices suffered through the Horizon scandal” while having a greater say over the governance and direction of the company. 

“Reuniting the Post Office with Royal Mail and utilising their natural synergies will create added social, commercial and economic value for both companies and the country — this is the vision the government need and we will campaign for them to deliver it,” said Mr Ward.

Post Office minister Gareth Thomas said that “it’s clear we need a fresh vision for its future” in the aftermath of the Horizon scandal, in which about 1,000 people are thought to have been wrongly prosecuted and convicted over shortfalls in their branches caused by faulty software.