115 Post Office Branches at Risk of Closure Under Transformation Plan

More than 100 Post Office branches, currently employing about 1,000 workers, are set for closure amid an overhaul of the service. The government-owned Post Office announced the changes on Wednesday, amid plans to boost postmasters’ pay by more than £250 million annually over five years. There are around 11,500 Post Office branches across the UK, with most branches run by franchises or by independent subpostmasters. The company is looking to offload some of its directly-owned branches that are loss-making and boost annual postmaster incomes in a “new deal.” The announcement comes as the long-running public inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal—which saw between 700 and 900 subpostmasters wrongfully prosecuted for financial crimes—heads into its final stages....