UK Post Office Chief appeals to MPs

ALLAN Leighton, chairman of Royal Mail Group, has written to all 659 members of Parliament, asking them to protest against the postal regulator’s plans for future funding. In his letter, the second he has sent to politicians in the past two months, Mr Leighton says the Postcomm proposals are “disastrous’ and will fatally undermine Royal Mail’s recovery plan. “I hope you won’t mind getting a second letter from me, but time is running out to change the regulator’s mind,” he writes. “He is likely to take key decisions in a matter of weeks which will have huge implications for the future of the UK’s postal service and the network of post office branches. I would, therefore, urge you to write to Postcomm to make your views known.” Mr Leighton believes that the regulator, Postcomm’s Graham Corbett, could scupper the Royal Mail Group’s recovery plan with his price control proposals. Last month, Postcomm announced that it would give Royal Mail the chance to raise the price of first and second class stamps by a penny, but that the organisation would have to fix the average price of its services at 29.1p for the next three years. Mr Leighton claims that this could cost Royal Mail, which has just changed its name again after a short-lived stint as Consignia, up to pounds 460m. He has been strenuously lobbying Postcomm to change its mind. “Postcomm is mishandling what should have been a simple process,” he wrote yesterday. “Reaching the goals in our renewal plan will be the biggest commercial turnaround ever, but we can only do it if the regulator abandons his unrealistic, flawed and totally unacceptable proposals.” Mr Leighton announced recently that Royal Mail is still losing over pounds 1m a day as it struggles with performance targets, industrial relations and retaining the nationwide network of post offices.