UK Royal Mail’s Leighton’s big day

THE Department of Trade and Industry is expected to give its verdict this week on a report by the Royal Mail into its finances over the next five years.

The DTI is likely to give its seal of approval to the document’s findings.

THE Department of Trade and Industry is expected to give its verdict this week on a report by the Royal Mail into its finances over the next five years.

The dossier was with the DTI before the General Election and will set the scene for the Government’s own review of the future of the Post Office.

As Financial Mail revealed last month, the report warns that the introduction of competition into the postal delivery market will deal a body-blow to Royal Mail finances. The Post Office will be unable to compete without an injection of outside finance.

Post Office chairman Allan Leighton and Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson are believed to agree that some form of partial privatisation is the only viable option.