5.1. Fostering pride of place in communities
Box 7
Case study: part and parcel of the local community in Pontrilas
- Half of consumers across the United Kingdom believe Post Office fosters a sense of belonging to the community and that it is important to its identity – particularly the elderly, those with disabilities, from rural areas or on lower incomes.
- Post offices are especially valuable to rural communities, who place a greater value on Post Office than those in urban areas – with a particular focus on cash and banking services, given the absence of convenient alternatives.
- Post Office also delivers ease, access and convenience for consumers, by bringing a range of services under one roof, with six in every seven consumers and SMEs believing it is important for a post office to be nearby and convenient to get to. Consumers place particularly high value on Post Office’s postal services.
This research, and the first three chapters of this report, have highlighted the considerable economic value that post offices bring to the United Kingdom and local communities. However, post offices also bring a less tangible, but equally important, value to their communities – one that cannot readily be quantified in economic terms alone. Post Office is a brand with a long history and post offices are therefore widely valued by their communities as long-standing institutions.
This research corroborated this, with nearly three in four people placing a significant degree of importance on Post Office providing an in-person, face-to-face service – which was more important than almost any other quality (with the exception of being nearby and convenient to get to, at 84%). Moreover, half of consumers across the United Kingdom value Post Office’s role in contributing to their local community’s identity or culture, and a similar number report that they think it’s important that Post Office remains a local place that provides a sense of belonging to the community. The findings from this survey correlate with wider evidence on the importance of Post Office in local communities: Post Office ranked third in terms of having a positive impact on the local area in the Association of Convenience Stores’ 2022 Community Barometer (Association of Convenience Stores, 2022). These findings highlight how post offices help maintain price in place for communities across the United Kingdom.
With more than half the Post Office network located in rural areas, this research has also revealed the particularly important role that Post Office plays in rural communities. Those in rural areas are far more likely to value the local post office as important to their local community’s identity or culture (60% compared to 46% in urban areas, rising to 70% for people aged 55 and over in rural areas) and more likely to think it is important that Post Office provides a sense of belonging to the community (57% compared to 45%, rising to 64% for people aged 55 and over in rural areas). While Post Office’s branch network has a universal reach across the United Kingdom, it clearly plays a particularly important role in rural areas where there is a lack of other retailers, by helping to bring the community together.
This research also found that post offices are particularly important to marginalised groups. Post Office’s role in providing both a sense of identity and belonging was especially important amongst older people aged 55+ (63% and 60%), those with lower household incomes of £20,000 per year or less (58% and 53%) and people with disabilities (57% and 55%). These findings highlight the critical importance of Post Office’s contribution to local communities and suggest that this matters most to those groups most at risk of being vulnerable or excluded from society.
With 11,500 branches across the UK, Post Office is right at the heart of each nation and every community. Post Office is universal as a brand, and inherently local at the same time, often playing an important role in the nearby area that goes beyond just the provision of services.
Take Pontrilas Post Office in rural Herefordshire, which is run by the community, for the community. Postmistress Sonya Cary led the effort to take over the post office for the community eight years ago and since then has run the branch and the adjoining charity, CARE CIC Herefordshire, with a team of local volunteers.
As well as providing Post Office services, Sonya’s branch goes beyond the call of duty by acting as a lifeline to elderly people living nearby. The profits from the post office are reinvested back into CARE CIC, which provides social services and activities that support older residents to continue living independently.
In addition, the charity also runs a local gym, café, and lunch club to help local people stay physically and mentally well.
This makes Pontrilas a great example of how post offices are more than just another retailer on the high street, and can often play an important role in promoting a sense of community and cultivating belonging in an area.
Sonya said: “The Post Office has been pivotal to everything that CARE has been able to do. People think of us as a post office with a social centre attached – and if it wasn’t for the Post Office, I wouldn’t have been able to have the reach that I do.
“It’s been one success story after another. We play an invaluable role. People, especially our elderly residents, rely on us. We really are a community lifeline.”
Sonya was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours for her community work during lockdown, arranging grocery deliveries and Sunday lunches for isolated people across 23 nearby villages.
“When there’s a problem, people come straight to the Post Office. They trust us.”
With 11,500 branches across the UK, Post Office is right at the heart of each nation and every community. Post Office is universal as a brand, and inherently local at the same time, often playing an important role in the nearby area that goes beyond just the provision of services.
Take Pontrilas Post Office in rural Herefordshire, which is run by the community, for the community. Postmaster Sonya Cary led the effort to take over the post office for the community eight years ago and since then has run the branch and the adjoining charity, C.A.R.E CIC Herefordshire, with a team of local volunteers.
As well as providing Post Office services, Sonya’s branch goes beyond the call of duty by acting as a lifeline to elderly people living nearby. The profits from the post office are reinvested back into C.A.R.E CIC, which provides social services and activities that support older residents to continue living independently.
In addition, the charity also runs a local gym, café, and lunch club to help local people stay physically and mentally well.
This makes Pontrilas a great example of how post offices are more than just another retailer on the high street, and can often play an important role in promoting a sense of community and cultivating belonging in an area.
Sonya said: “The Post Office has been pivotal to everything that CARE has been able to do. People think of us as a post office with a social centre attached – and if it wasn’t for the Post Office, I wouldn’t have been able to have the reach that I do.
“It’s been one success story after another. We play an invaluable role. People, especially our elderly residents, rely on us. We really are a community lifeline.”
Sonya was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours for her community work during lockdown, arranging grocery deliveries
and Sunday lunches for isolated people across 23 nearby villages.
“When there’s a problem, people come straight to the Post Office. They trust us.”