Small businesses won’t welcome Post Office sell-off

Posted by peopleperhour.com - 25/02/2009 13:33

Many small businesses look set to be disappointed by the sell-off of Royal Mail. A poll among its members by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) showed that nearly half of the respondents wanted the country’s mail to remain in public hands.

However, the Government appears to be set on selling a minority stake to a rival operator as part of the group’s overhaul.

The FSB points out that small businesses can ill-afford to lose any more local post offices as four-fifths depend on them for mail as well as other business services. Almost 20 per cent of FSB members now suffer longer queues in larger post offices as a result of closures.

The FSB research was carried out for Monday night’s Panorama on BBC, called Credit Where It’s Due. Other findings reported that 66 per cent had seen no change in the availability of credit from banks, two per cent thought it was better, and 15 per cent said banking fees had gone up.

The Government said in January that there would be guarantees on loans to small businesses. The money seems to have got stuck in the system somewhere.

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