The government Post Office (PO) minister has allegedly requested Co-operatives UK to put together a plan for exploring handing ownership of the PO to branch owners.

The minister, Kevin Hollinrake, held a meeting with the representative body for mutually owned businesses alongside the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and pressure group Voice of the Postmaster (VOTP) on Wednesday 7 February.

Following the meeting, the VOTP claimed Hollinrake asked Rose Marley, of Co-operatives UK, to put forward a plan for an “independent review into the practicalities of mutualisation of the PO” involving postmasters, customers, industry experts and leaders of other mutually-owned organisations.

Marley commented: “We believe a taskforce of new and progressive thinkers – with postmasters, customers and leading mutual figures front and centre – could produce solutions for government to consider. We welcome the minister’s open-mindedness and are delighted to put a detailed proposal together.”

VOTP also claimed the minister agreed to ask the PO to engage with ‘all bodies representing postmasters’, a marked change to its current strategy of only dealing with the NFSP. VOTP also claim the minister promised to ‘prioritise’ branch profitability in all decisions on the PO’s future. Better Retailing understands a further meeting between Hollinrake and attendees has been agreed.

Attendee Sean Hudson, branch secretary of CWU, said: “No sticking plaster remedy is appropriate or suitable. Mutualisation is a very attractive alternative to the current failed model it would replace and represents one of, if not the best way of, ensuring a future for subpostmasters.”

Fellow attendee Richard Trinder, VOTP chair, said: “We need significant change. Ministers have looked at mutualising the Post Office in the past and it’s time we revisited these options.”