---

Post Office Restructuring

My right hon. Friend makes an extremely powerful point. Indeed, the regional spatial strategy plan revisions going on at present around the country suggest that many new houses will be built in parts of the country where post offices are probably about to close. The issue that he raises so powerfully on behalf of his constituents has a wider policy resonance, and I entirely share his concern. The network change programme—I wish it were instead called the national closure programme, which is a much more honest phrase—has begun in earnest. It began in three areas on 2 October. My own area is last.