| Campaigns | People's Bank | Post Office People’s Bank coalition.

Post Office People’s Bank coalition.

With the aim of drawing on the increasingly broad range of support for the idea, the CWU has joined forces with other organisations in the newly formed Post Bank Coalition, a campaign which will benefit from the expertise of the New Economic Foundation, Compass and Public Interest Research - highly influential "think-tanks" who play a major role in developing political and social policy.

Further backing for the coalition's aims comes from the Federation of Small Businesses, Federation of Sub-Postmasters, Consumer Focus and the National Association of Credit Unions.

Like the CWU, each of these organisations is convinced that, not only would the creation of a new bank through the Post Office offer the best route to tackling financial exclusion, it could also start to stimulate parts of local economies through new financial services to small businesses.

Britain's small enterprise sector, which employs a little over half of the whole private sector workforce, is critical to full economic recovery, as is the UK housing industry, which can also be revitalised if the new People's Bank is given the ability to offer affordable mortgages for those on low to medium incomes.

With major private banks still failing to provide the lending that huge government backing was intended to kickstart, People's Bank can allow the government to direct investment exactly where it is needed.

Encompassing much of the thinking behind this initiative - which aims to meet both the economic and social needs of the UK - is the idea of new universal banking obligation.

And, just as our nation looks to the fully publicly owned Royal Mail to deliver the universal postal service, it is through a new People's Bank that universal banking services can be provided, the Post Office's 100 per cent security making it the ideal vehicle for meeting this crucial social and economic need.