MP challenges Royal Mail attacks on postal regulator
A senior MP challenged Royal Mail’s repeated attacks on Postcomm yesterday by comparing the company’s rhetoric to that used by British Gas during the gas market’s liberalisation in the mid-1990s.
Martin O’Neill, chairman of the Commons trade and industry committee, asked Allan Leighton, Royal Mail chairman, whether this was not the “same self-serving defence of inefficiencies” used by any regulated company afraid of competition.
The challenge came as Mr Leighton stepped up pressure on the regulator by warning that its price control proposals could damage Royal Mail’s renewal plans.
Mr Leighton made his comments before appearing in front of the select committee, which heard from the company, Postwatch and the unions that Postcomm’s slow regime was threatening the postal service’s future.
Mr Leighton asked Postcomm to take Royal Mail off the regulatory treadmill”. If the regulator could not or would not put forward a straightforward pricing regime, Royal Mail would demand a referral to the Competition Commission.
“That will take at least another six months, and perhaps a lot longer – with no price increase meantime – so it’s the last thing we want to do,” he said. Postcomm said Royal Mail was entitled to do that but it was in nobody’s interest.
The other parties expressed concern at the uncertainty of Royal Mail’s future. Postwatch said it found regulation “exceedingly slow” and complained that Postcomm had not yet consulted on access pricing. But the watchdog questioned Royal Mail’s claims about liberalisation, saying the amount of competition the company would face after the opening of 30 per cent of the market in January was “virtually none”.
