Royal Mail accused of giving householders a raw deal

Richard Hooper and MP’s claim Royal Mail are more interested in their commercial clients than delivering letters to homes. Householders get a raw deal from Royal Mail, which is more interested in its commercial clients than delivering letters to homes, it has been claimed.

Richard Hooper, the former deputy chairman of Ofcom, who conducted a review into the future of the postal service, said one-price letter delivery to the whole of the UK was "the social and economic glue of this country" in a strong endorsement of the value of Royal Mail and the post office network.

Mr Hooper, who was appearing in front of MPs on the Business and Enterprise Committee after the publication of the review last month, criticised the organisation for not paying sufficient attention to basic deliveries.

He said that he hoped that the system could be reorganised so that customers could collect parcels and packets from their local post office, rather than a delivery sorting office.

Post offices were "critical" for social customers and to small firms in rural areas, he said, with one third of Royal Mail's letters going through the post office network.

The most recent annual delivery statistics show that one in six first class letters were not delivered on time last year – the worst annual record for nearly two decades.

Mr Hooper published a review last month, which recommended that a stake in Royal Mail be sold to a private company with experience of postal systems to modernise the service. The taxpayer would also take on Royal Mail's pension deficit, which could be worth up to £9billion.

A private firm taking a stake would not affect the quality of the national postal service, he said.

His report had not recommended axing Saturday collections by going "from six to five days, as quite a number of people had recommended to us".

He told the MPs: "The Government will make it clear to the strategic partner that the universal postal service is part of the deal.

"The universal postal service is the social and economic glue of this country and we are keeping it."

The Government has now opened talks with TNT, a Dutch company, about taking a minority stake in Royal Mail.

Mr Hooper's criticism of the quality of the postal service was supported by Peter Luff MP, the committee's chairman, who said often he could receive post at any time between "11.30am and 3pm – and on Saturdays it is nine o'clock in the morning".

Figures published last summer show that just 85.2 per cent of first-class letters were delivered the next day in the 12 months to the end of March, compared with 94 per cent in 2006/7.

Royal Mail's performance was last this bad in 1989/90, when 78.1 per cent of first-class letters were delivered on time.

The company blamed the poor performance on industrial action which badly hit services.

The CWU argued that letters could be collected and delivered on the same day if there was proper investment in the Royal Mail.

The union accused the Government of planning to nationalise the Royal Mail's debts and privatise its profits under plans to sell a stake in the postal organisation.

CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said Labour should stick to its manifesto commitment of keeping the service wholly publicly-owned rather than allowing a private firm to take a stake.

There has been speculation that Dutch-owned TNT will be allowed to take a stake worth between.

Mr Hayes told MPs that the union feared it could be as high as 49 per cent. He said no-one would say how much money the Royal Mail needed to modernise, adding: "It's like playing charades – trying to guess what future investment is needed for the company.

"If a private company comes in, they will want to make a profit. My fear is that we would be nationalising the debt and privatising the profit."
A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We care very much about all our customers – whether they are sending or receiving mail – and if we've been unable to make a delivery because no-one is at home, we offer a number of choices, including ordering online a redelivery or selecting a local Post Office branch where we'll make the delivery for collection at the customer's convenience."