POL granted exemption from rules for having cash machines

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Post Office granted eleventh-hour exemption from rules which could have seen it charged thousands of pounds in extra rates for having cash machines

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The Post Office has been granted an eleventh-hour exemption from rules which could have seen it charged thousands of pounds in extra rates for having cash machines.

The U-turn comes as the Government pushes Post Offices and banks to link up their services to make sure smaller communities are not left without banking facilities.

Supermarkets have in the last few months been landed with bills for business rates on cashpoints in their stores, which range between £2,500 and more than £15,000 per year for each machine.


The industry as a whole is facing a combined £500 million charge, according to some estimates.

Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for Business, wrote to the leading banks last month and urged them to make sure branch closures do not leave customers stranded without banking services. He said closer links with Post Offices should be ‘a priority’.


In her reply to Cable, Post Office boss Paula Vennells complained about the threat posed by the proposed charges. She said: ‘If introduced, this change would impose substantial costs on our sub-postmasters into the future.’

The Post Office told The Mail on Sunday last week that it had now been informed that it would not be hit with the new rates charge.

Business rates expert Brian Rees, from property advisers Matthews & Goodman, said the Valuation Office was classifying other extras – including car washes at supermarkets – as liable for an extra rates charge. ‘It all adds up to a big sum,’ he said.

Supermarkets are believed to be facing bills backdated for up to four years.