Our Post Office (now a counter in the newsagents) is closing. There’s bound to be a campaign to save it, but I’m afraid it and most others are doomed. During lockdown, I started using Royal Mail online. In two minutes, I could print out a nice address label with postage paid to stick on my letters of all sizes. No socially distanced queuing. When it came to sending a big parcel, the R. Mail price was £28 plus a visit to their counter. For £9, a courier came to collect it from my house for next day delivery. And, of course, all of the other stuff Post Offices used to do, pension paying, car tax, passports, has moved online. So farewell Mrs Goggins. And probably Postman Pat, too.
“How can lifelong renting be made more compatible with retirement saving?”
Here’s a future problem that will doubtless be kicked down the road until it becomes a crisis. There’s a whole generation who may never be able to afford to buy their own homes.