Raymond Blanc may only shut down the restaurant of one couple who dream of running one every week on his TV show The Restaurant. But away from the world of reality TV the reality is looking far more harsh. Restaurants are going to be facing their toughest year since 1990 according to a recent survey. With the credit crunch taking a grip eating out is hitting high on people's list of economising.
The end result of course will be that our catering industry is looking likely to follow the retail trade in restaurants no longer being able to keep up with the lose of trade. Considering that retail companies have been going into administration or worse even during the run up to Christmas we can see what can happen. When you look at the names from the High Street from Woolies to Wedgewood you can also see that there may not be any guarantee for either end of the market it merely may come down to the overheads and whether these are met or not.
The sector is now tightening its belt and jobs and eateries across Scotland are starting to disappear and are expected to carry on doing so throughout the year. Maybe Gordon and Alistair should give us all vouchers to eat out at restaurants to give our restaurant owners an economic stimulus on the boil.
Some of the factors that are adding to the misery in Scotland are:
A need to thin out of the overly congested industry especially in Edinburgh.
An exodus of foreign chefs especially as salaries drop in comparison to the Euro wages offered elsewhere.
The reverse that good from Europe will be forcing prices up beyond which the price elasticity of the consumer can stomach.
Two thirds of people already stating they will be dinning out less this year.
Also post Hogmanay a growing number of restaurants are closing for an extended holiday in January and those staying open are not replacing staff lost through attrition.
Showing posts with label closures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label closures. Show all posts
Thursday, 8 January 2009
Wednesday, 24 October 2007
The Very Model of a Modern Post Master General
I always marvel at the relevance of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, the latest Making Money is about Moist van Lipwig who we first met in Going Postal when Lord Vetinari appointed him the new Post Master General for Ankh Morpork. He has now been given control of the biggest bank and mint in the city because he has turned around the post office making it reliable, efficient and profitable. As the title suggests he has now been charged with making money.
It appears that possibly Terry in his infinite wisdom has taken a look at the current Labour government's policy on Post Offices and twisted it towards this logical conclusion. Yesterday when I returned home after writing about the closure of Post Offices coming to parts of Scotland I turned on the news to be bombarded my 'loyal' Labour Glasgow MPs being up in arms about the reduction of access to their constituents of much needed services, especially the elderly and those without access to private transport.
But what have they stood on at the last three elections as far as Post Offices are concerned. (Parenthesises mine)
In 1997 Labour promised in their manifesto:
In 2001:
'The Post Office and postal services
'We are committed to high-quality, universal postal services, and a dynamic Post Office which can thrive in a world of technological change and increased competitive pressure. Labour is working with the banks to offer a new universal banking service. This will allow all benefit and pension recipients to receive their payments, at no charge, in full at the post office after the switch to Automated Credit Transfer in 2003.
'We also intend the local post office to become an invaluable resource for access to government information. There will be increased incentives for people to take over and modernise post offices. Business customers, representing by far the majority of the Post Office’s turnover, want a full range of express, parcels and logistics services. We have given the Post Office greater commercial freedom in the public sector. It needs to be able to gain an advantage in the new postal market and become a leading force in domestic and international postal services through alliances and joint ventures. We want to help the Post Office keep up with the best in a fast-changing market.
'Rural life
'Labour is pledged to a rural services standard to set out specifically what rural people can expect from 21 public service providers - with annual auditing and commitments to service improvement. The rural school closure programme has been ended; 3,000 new, affordable homes a year are on the way; a £30 million police programme will help cut rural crime; £239 million over three years has been set aside for rural transport services; and the Post Office is now obliged to prevent closure of rural post offices except in unavoidable circumstances, with £270 million to help achieve this and recruit sub-postmasters.'
And in 2005:
'Thriving rural areas
'Since 1997, Labour has made it more difficult to close rural schools, put in £750 million to support rural post offices and introduced a 50 per cent rate relief on village shops.Through our £51 million Rural Bus Subsidy Grant we have delivered over 2,200 new bus services in rural areas this year.'
Whoops!
Not only has Labour been saying less an less about Post Offices over the last 10 years they have also clearly not been delivering on their own promises. Promises about how important the post offices should be, how everyone should still be able to get their benifits in full from their 'local' post office and that the Post Office will become a leading force in industry to take but three.
It appears that possibly Terry in his infinite wisdom has taken a look at the current Labour government's policy on Post Offices and twisted it towards this logical conclusion. Yesterday when I returned home after writing about the closure of Post Offices coming to parts of Scotland I turned on the news to be bombarded my 'loyal' Labour Glasgow MPs being up in arms about the reduction of access to their constituents of much needed services, especially the elderly and those without access to private transport.
But what have they stood on at the last three elections as far as Post Offices are concerned. (Parenthesises mine)
In 1997 Labour promised in their manifesto:
'We will ensure that self-financing commercial organisations within the public sector - the Post Office is a prime example - are given greater commercial freedom to make the most of new opportunities.
'Life in our countryside
'Labour recognises the special needs of people who live and work in rural areas. The Conservatives do not. Public services and transport services in rural areas must not be allowed to deteriorate. The Conservatives have tried to privatise the Post Office. We opposed that, in favour of a public Post Office providing a comprehensive service. Conservative plans would mean higher charges for letters and put rural post offices under threat.'
In 2001:
'The Post Office and postal services
'We are committed to high-quality, universal postal services, and a dynamic Post Office which can thrive in a world of technological change and increased competitive pressure. Labour is working with the banks to offer a new universal banking service. This will allow all benefit and pension recipients to receive their payments, at no charge, in full at the post office after the switch to Automated Credit Transfer in 2003.
'We also intend the local post office to become an invaluable resource for access to government information. There will be increased incentives for people to take over and modernise post offices. Business customers, representing by far the majority of the Post Office’s turnover, want a full range of express, parcels and logistics services. We have given the Post Office greater commercial freedom in the public sector. It needs to be able to gain an advantage in the new postal market and become a leading force in domestic and international postal services through alliances and joint ventures. We want to help the Post Office keep up with the best in a fast-changing market.
'Rural life
'Labour is pledged to a rural services standard to set out specifically what rural people can expect from 21 public service providers - with annual auditing and commitments to service improvement. The rural school closure programme has been ended; 3,000 new, affordable homes a year are on the way; a £30 million police programme will help cut rural crime; £239 million over three years has been set aside for rural transport services; and the Post Office is now obliged to prevent closure of rural post offices except in unavoidable circumstances, with £270 million to help achieve this and recruit sub-postmasters.'
And in 2005:
'Thriving rural areas
'Since 1997, Labour has made it more difficult to close rural schools, put in £750 million to support rural post offices and introduced a 50 per cent rate relief on village shops.Through our £51 million Rural Bus Subsidy Grant we have delivered over 2,200 new bus services in rural areas this year.'
Whoops!
Not only has Labour been saying less an less about Post Offices over the last 10 years they have also clearly not been delivering on their own promises. Promises about how important the post offices should be, how everyone should still be able to get their benifits in full from their 'local' post office and that the Post Office will become a leading force in industry to take but three.
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
The First Cut is the Deepest
Sadly it appears that the pound speaks more highly than the need as far as the Post Office is concerned.
The announcement of the first Post Office closures in Scotland are being announced today. The Post Office Ltd is announcing these in phases and the first trance of these for Glasgow, central Scotland and Argyll are a lot deeper than expected according to the Scotsman.
24 of the 44 offices earmarked for closure are in Glasgow, while rural areas in the Cental Belt and West have come out least scathed. What is apparent is that the cuts appear to have been based on the type of business each office carries out rather than the reliance on such business the local communities may require of their post office. Therefore most of the cuts appear to have come in the poorer areas.
Last month the National Consumer Council issued a report which highlighted that found that people most reliant on post offices, such as the elderly and unemployed, were the least likely or able to lobby for them to stay open. These cuts announced for Scotland seems to bear out this that the Post Office is hurting still further those most reliant on their services but is favouring those who keep them most profitable.
There are now fears for the rest of Scotland including Lothian following this first look at what services will be cut.
The announcement of the first Post Office closures in Scotland are being announced today. The Post Office Ltd is announcing these in phases and the first trance of these for Glasgow, central Scotland and Argyll are a lot deeper than expected according to the Scotsman.
24 of the 44 offices earmarked for closure are in Glasgow, while rural areas in the Cental Belt and West have come out least scathed. What is apparent is that the cuts appear to have been based on the type of business each office carries out rather than the reliance on such business the local communities may require of their post office. Therefore most of the cuts appear to have come in the poorer areas.
Last month the National Consumer Council issued a report which highlighted that found that people most reliant on post offices, such as the elderly and unemployed, were the least likely or able to lobby for them to stay open. These cuts announced for Scotland seems to bear out this that the Post Office is hurting still further those most reliant on their services but is favouring those who keep them most profitable.
There are now fears for the rest of Scotland including Lothian following this first look at what services will be cut.
Friday, 19 May 2006
Adam Crozier the Beeching of the Post Offices
Adam Crozier the Chief Executive of the Royal Mail has said:
However, six per day comes to 36 a week which might actually be the whole population of some of the villages that are possibly under threat by mr Crozier's radical changes. Rural post offices are often also the only source of banking services in some rural communities so their universal provision is of vital importance to many people. He says these unprofitable post offices lose £2m a week, or £104m.
Of course all this talk of radically cutting post office services has also come the day after £1.7bn of Taxpayers money is being provided to bail out the Royal Mail's pension scheme.
Yet somehow dispite £1.3bn being injected for radical transformation of the Royal Mail Mr Crozier is talking of meeting his legal obligations with only 4000 of the current 14,500 post offices. But what about his moral obligations to provide customer satisfaction, not all of the 4000 offices he will be maintaining are going to be easily accessible especially by our most vulnerable citizens. This sounds like it might become as radical a cull of a vital service as that carried out by Dr. Richard Beeching on the railways in the 1960s.
We need the government to have a clear rethink on Post Office policy and provision and to lay down conditions on the way this £3bn of our money is actually being used. Surely this should be to improve the service not to further reduce it.
That the current situation — where a thousand post offices have fewer than six customers a day — was “not sustainable”.
However, six per day comes to 36 a week which might actually be the whole population of some of the villages that are possibly under threat by mr Crozier's radical changes. Rural post offices are often also the only source of banking services in some rural communities so their universal provision is of vital importance to many people. He says these unprofitable post offices lose £2m a week, or £104m.
Of course all this talk of radically cutting post office services has also come the day after £1.7bn of Taxpayers money is being provided to bail out the Royal Mail's pension scheme.
Yet somehow dispite £1.3bn being injected for radical transformation of the Royal Mail Mr Crozier is talking of meeting his legal obligations with only 4000 of the current 14,500 post offices. But what about his moral obligations to provide customer satisfaction, not all of the 4000 offices he will be maintaining are going to be easily accessible especially by our most vulnerable citizens. This sounds like it might become as radical a cull of a vital service as that carried out by Dr. Richard Beeching on the railways in the 1960s.
We need the government to have a clear rethink on Post Office policy and provision and to lay down conditions on the way this £3bn of our money is actually being used. Surely this should be to improve the service not to further reduce it.
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