Bain tipped to take over as the chairman of UK postal watchdog

Sir George Bain, the author of a highly controversial report into Fire Service pay, has emerged as the leading candidate to take over as Britain’s postal regulator.

The former chairman of the Low Pay Commission and now Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University, Belfast is at the top of a list of contenders drawn up by the headhunters Saxton Bampfylde Hever to succeed Graham Corbett as chairman of Postcomm.

Bill Morris, who retires as general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union this autumn, has also been canvassed for the Postcomm job, which carries a salary of between £70,000 and £100,000 for a three-day week.

However, a Department of Trade and Industry source said the chances of Mr Morris, one of the country’s most prominent black men, being given the post were remote. “We need someone who is independent and prepared to challenge the Government but is also rigorous and intellectually robust. George Bain fits the bill in both respects.”

Mr Corbett, who has unsettled ministers with his uncompromising approach to Royal Mail and his eagerness to introduce competition to the state-owned company at a breakneck pace, leaves the Postcomm job in March next year, when he will have completed four years.

Sir George angered the Fire Brigade’s Union by calling for sweeping reforms in working practices in a report that reflected the views of New Labour. Mr Morris, meanwhile, is seen as being very close to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown

Senior directors of the Royal Mail, leaders of the postal unions and other “stake holders” have been canvassed on their opinions of both men. The Government is looking for a less confrontational figure to succeed Mr Corbett, who has clashed with the Department of Trade and Industry over a wide range of issues including the price of stamps and other postal services and the pace at which the postal market should be opened to rival operators. Initially Mr Corbett had wanted to liberalise services almost immediately but following protests from Post Office managers was persuaded to introduce competition more gradually. Royal Mail’s monopoly is now due to be abolished in stages by 2007.

Recently Mr Corbett has again antagonised Royal Mail by proposing that it should be forced to deliver rival companies’ mail for as little as 11.5p a letter ­ a move which the company estimated would cost it £1.2bn. Allan Leighton, the Royal Mail chairman, accused the regulator of “throwing a huge spanner in the works” and threatening, once again the Royal Mail’s one-price-goes-everywhere letter service. A final decision on the price that competitors will have to pay for access to Royal Mail’s infrastructure is due in October or November.

Royal Mail will renew its attack on the regulator today by telling a Lords Select Committee that Postcomm is not sufficiently regulated itself by government while a speedier way needs to be found of appealing against its decisions short of the “nuclear option” of a judicial review or a referral to the Competition Commission.

Senior Royal Mail sources said Sir George and Mr Morris were “interesting names” and that Mr Morris’s lack of experience in the field of economics would not be a bar to his appointment.

Mr Morris yesterday denied that he had been approached to take on the job.