Ministers need to flip the Post Office right into a co-operative and have requested enterprise specialists to analyze methods of handing management of the 364-year-old establishment over to the subpostmasters who function it.
Administration consultants have been requested to discover methods to show the scandal-hit physique over to an employee-owned mutual, much like the best way the John Lewis Partnership is run, Sky Information reported. The Division of Enterprise and Commerce engaged Boston Consulting Group to hold out a industrial research of the way forward for the Publish Workplace.
The work is claimed to be at an early stage however a report will likely be handed to Jonathan Reynolds, the enterprise secretary, inside months.
Requires a evaluate of the Publish Workplace have grown for the reason that wrongful conviction of a whole lot of subpostmasters accused of stealing money from their branches.
The instances, labelled the UK’s greatest miscarriage of justice, sparked nationwide anger after being portrayed within the ITV tv drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office.
Final night time, campaigner Alan Bates solid doubt on the plan. “I personally don’t suppose this may work. At present, the federal government subsidises it and can proceed to need to assist it. They will’t simply give it to the subpostmasters and say: ‘Right here you go, mate’.
“I don’t suppose mutualisation goes to avoid wasting the federal government or the taxpayer big quantities of cash as a result of it’s going to be subsidising the Publish Workplace for a few years as soon as it will get off the bottom, irrespective of how good the scheme is,” he instructed the Sunday Occasions.
James Arbuthnot, who additionally campaigned for justice, expressed doubts about subpostmasters’ skill to afford it.
Final 12 months the Publish Workplace misplaced about £76m and has liabilities of £799m.
A public inquiry into the Publish Workplace miscarriages of justice has been instructed {that a} substitute for the Horizon IT system on the coronary heart of the scandal may price as much as £1.1bn.
Earlier governments have examined related plans however deserted them within the face of issues.
Liam Byrne, chair of the parliamentary enterprise choose committee, mentioned mutualisation was an choice with a lot of potential.
Most put up workplaces generate their revenues by offering quite a lot of authorities providers, which have tightly managed revenue margins.
Its greater than 11,600 sub-post workplaces are privately run as franchise operations of the Publish Workplace.
A evaluate of the Publish Workplace by the consulting agency Teneo is anticipated to suggest shrinking immediately employed workers from 3,500 to 1,000.