Stamp prices lift UK Postcomm costs to pounds 10m

POSTCOMM, the regulator for Britain’s mail system, will see its costs spiral from pounds 5.94m in 2002-03 to pounds 10.2m in 2004-05, according to the organisation’s annual report.

The regulator is funded mainly by the Royal Mail, which is owned by the Government, and any increase in costs must be approved by the Department of Trade & Industry.

Yesterday a spokesman for the organisation said that the money would be spent on extra consultants to look at whether the price of stamps will be increased. “We have a very small number of staff, so we tend to employ consultants,” he said. The bill for “outside consultants, lawyers etc” is expected to increase from pounds 2.22m in the last year to pounds 5.3m next.

A spokesman for the Post Office said yesterday that the way Postcomm was funded was “a fact of regulation”. “We will end up paying the huge bulk of this,” he added. When informed of the increased number of consultants, he said “we will look forward to even more detailed reports in future”.

The pounds 10.2m figure has already been approved by the DTI. Postcomm said it had a panel of five consulting firms, including Arthur D Little and Postal and Logistics Consulting Worldwide, which would bid for the consulting work.