Postwatch Warns Of Turbulent Times Ahead For UK Postal Industry

Postwatch, the UK watchdog for postal services, is to be disbanded, the majority of staff being made redundant. In just six days time, the work of postwatch is to be scaled-down and merged with energy watch and the National Consumer Council to form 'Consumer Focus'.

Chair of Postwatch, Millie Banerjee, has written to Pat McFadden, the Minister responsible for the postal industry, giving her views on the challenging and turbulent times faced by the key players in the UK postal industry but was only cautiously optimistic that with the loss of regional representation, customers would be adequately supported and that there were likely to be "interesting and turbulent times ahead".

Alongside the letter was a copy of Postwatch’s final publication, ‘Post, present and future’. The book gives a brief account of the postal scene as seen from Postwatch during its seven years of operation and some thoughts on the future and the challenges ahead. In her forward to the book, Millie listed the issues (the pension fund deficit, the cost of providing the universal postal service, declining mail volumes, poor industrial relations and the need for support for the post office network) that have come to dominate the postal sector.

She said she hoped that the forthcoming review of postal services would lead to speedy and positive action from the industry and the Government but from October 1st, championing the cause of postal customers would be shared among a number of organisations, notably Consumer Focus, Consumer Direct, Royal Mail, Post Office Limited and Postcomm.

Of the new 'Consumer Focus', she said:

"It has the potential to be a clear and positive step forward for consumer representation and could be a positive development for postal customers – provided that postal issues receive the attention they deserve."

"In the case of mail, the current regulatory regime is based on Postcomm’s using the consumer body to ‘balance’ the views of the dominant monopoly, Royal Mail. In the case of post offices, the role of the regulator is far less developed, and the role of the consumer body is, accordingly, even more important. So it is necessary that Consumer Focus gives mail and post office issues suitable priority, and that the regulator also ensures that consumer issues are explicitly and prominently factored in to its deliberations. If so, but only if so, the outlook for mail and post office customers will be good. The lack of a regional organisation in England will certainly pose challenges for Consumer Focus if it intends to champion, as it should, the customer interest in mail and the post office network."

She said that Consumer Focus would need to find ways to involve itself in post office closures, and in particular, the review of some 500 rural outreach services and the trialling by Post Office Limited of urban outreach services.

She pointed out that Postwatch has always been a strong supporter of the Consumer Direct concept and that giving customers one central point of contact for help and guidance was both sensible and practical. She was confident that Consumer Direct would be able to cope with the additional enquiries of postal customers. But that Consumer Direct must make efforts to publicise widely the expanded scope of its services.

She was critical of Royal Mail, saying that although it’s letter business had been through a period of change, it had not been deep nor quick enough and that the poor state of industrial relations in the industry would hamper any investment programme unless it was addressed.

On Post Office Limited, she said it needed to do far more if it was to turn around it's present course as a declining retail chain:

She had grave concerns that unless Postcomm made greater efforts to build on its customer expertise, the abolition of Postwatch, which had always been able to distil the views and concerns of postal customers, would leave domestic customers sidelined:

Millie said she was pleased that Postcomm has recognised the value of the Postwatch Trade Association Forum and given it a home, with Royal Mail financing the secretariat.

Steve Lawson, editor for Hellmail said:

"It concerns me greatly that with Royal Mail still losing money on the universal service and domestic mail services nowhere near as good as they once were, a 'one size fits all' centralised consumer body, which lacks the kind of regional support that Postwatch was able to muster, will lead to a weak and ineffective voice for domestic customers in the longer term, and potentially undo the work that Postwatch has done. In any event, Postcomm and Consumer Focus has a great deal of work to do to match the expertise and effectiveness of Postwatch."

"I am grateful to Postwatch for their enthusiasm and assistance over recent years. Whenever we have raised an issue that we felt needed looking at, or needed advice on a particular consumer problem, the Postwatch team have been nothing short of exemplary. I would particularly like to thank Lisa Dinnick at Postwatch who I will miss greatly. The demise of Postwatch is a sad day for all of us at Hellmail. It leaves us with a greater responsibility in terms of highlighting issues that impact on services, and one which we will have to work harder at I'm sure."