Tag: Royal Mail

Go west! Home movers fall for the charm of the West Country

Posted by | Mar 17, 2008 | |

UK home movers are flocking to the West Country, a unique study of over half a million address changes by Royal Mail revealed today.

Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset all make appearances in the top ten most desirable areas to live in the UK. Calculated by net moves*, they claimed fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth places respectively.

The study of mail redirection data revealed that, between them, the four counties attracted 10,847 new householders who travelled more than one million miles to relocate from other parts of the UK.

Kent tops the table with an impressive 5,068 moves into the area. Only London and Surrey achieved higher move-in levels, but because they have also experienced significant moves out, neither makes it into the top 10.

Other counties to appear include West Sussex (2nd), Suffolk (9th) and Essex (10th). Hampshire (3rd) and Lincolnshire (7th) also performed well.

Royal Mail’s Home Movers Barometer is managed and compiled by data value management specialist DQM Group, based on 0.6 million mail redirection requests over a 12-month period. It also shows that, while not making it into the top 10, smaller regions have been successful in attracting new residents.

Most significant are the Scottish Isles (not including the Shetland or Orkney Islands), which welcomed 289 new households, who moved an average of 217.82 miles each to relocate.

Additionally, existing residents of Hampshire, Kent, Essex and Devon have been proved extremely loyal, all demonstrating a high level of moves within their respective county. People from Kent were most fond of their “Garden of England”, clocking a substantial 12,646 internal moves and an average of just 5.39 miles per relocation.

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Cash-strapped holidaymakers could lead to city breaks explosion

Posted by | Mar 17, 2008 | |

Eastern Europe’s emerging city break destinations could be set to benefit from the UK’s economic downturn, just as Barcelona, Prague and Dublin did after the stock market crash 20 years ago – according to a new report by Post Office® Travel Services.

The report, which examines the growth of city breaks over the past two decades, concludes that demand for city breaks may explode in 2008 as it did after Black Monday in October 1987.

Cities like Krakow, Tallinn, Riga and Dubrovnik are among those predicted to grow in popularity this year – for many of the reasons that people flocked to Barcelona, Prague and Dublin in the late eighties and nineties, according to the Post Office².

Short breaks to eurozone cities still dominate – taking eight of the top ten places – but the Post Office® warns holidaymakers to be prepared for the pound in their pocket to buy less in these cities. Sterling has slipped by 11 per cent against the euro since last March. However visitors to Prague will feel the pinch even more, because the pound has fallen by 22 per cent against the Czech koruna. Only in New York – a new entrant to Superbreak’s cities top ten – will the pound stretch further – by five per cent

Of the Eastern European cities, Budapest is likely to offer best value to UK visitors this year as its currency, the forint, has strengthened least – by eight per cent – against sterling. In Krakow, which has benefited from the biggest increase in the number of flights from UK regional airports, the pound will buy 19 per cent less than a year ago.

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Councils 'kept in dark' on post office plans

Posted by | Mar 16, 2008 | |

Royal Mail has been accused of obstructing plans by councils to save hundreds of post offices from closure.

The Government says 2,500 branches must close to preserve the network’s GBP 150 million annual subsidy and cut its GBP 4 million-a-week losses.

Up to 50 councils in England and Wales are investigating ways of saving threatened branches, offering rescue packages of GBP 18,000 per branch over three years from council tax receipts.

But some local authorities claim that Royal Mail is standing in the way of such plans by withholding key information about branches until a consultation period has elapsed, so the councils cannot assess whether they are viable businesses to take on.

Royal Mail has also allegedly stipulated that authorities who want to use the Post Office branding must meet criteria on minimum turnover and the number of counters.

Sir Simon Milton, the chairman of the Local Government Association, which represents 410 councils, claimed that Royal Mail executives lacked enthusiasm over the plans.

He said: “There is not the high-level commitment within the Post Office to engage seriously with alternative means to keep post offices alive.”

Ideas put forward in December 2006 by Lord Bruce Lockhart, Sir Simon’s predecessor, to help keep branches open included charging peppercorn rents and letting councils run services from their own premises, such as town halls and leisure centres.

The suggestions were made personally to the Royal Mail boss, Adam Crozier, but nothing came of them.

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Post rivals urge watchdog to bare teeth over Royal Mail privileges

Posted by | Mar 16, 2008 | |

Private postal operators are calling on the Government to take a “brave” decision to end Royal Mail’s monopoly on large parts of the market as it considers the future of Britain’s mail services.

Operators including TNT Post and DX, which employs a fleet of private sector postmen in Scotland, are pressing the Government to end the special privileges afforded to Royal Mail, such as VAT exemption, which they say prevent equal competition.

As the regulator PostComm considers responses to a consultation on the future of postal services, which closed on Friday, the operators are urging Sir Nigel Stapleton, PostComm’s chairman, to take a brave stance. They hope the PostComm inquiry will set the tone for a wider review by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which is due to report this summer.

James Greenbury, chief executive of DX, said: “The first decision PostComm and the BERR (Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform] have to take is to actually take a position on Royal Mail. Our view is that Royal Mail is an institution left over from the 1970s. It has a number of advantages over all of the competition which have to be levelled out. They don’t have to charge VAT and we do. It takes out 40% of the market.”

Nick Wells, chief executive of TNT Post, said: “We need a level playing field. The market is still overshadowed by VAT distortion which closes off 40% of mail volumes to competitors.”

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Royal Mail special delivery prices to go up (UK)

Posted by | Mar 14, 2008 | |

Royal Mail is to make changes to it’s Special Delivery service by reducing the insurance cover to GBP 500 maximum and introduce a Special Delivery High Value service for items of higher value.

Postcomm has responded to Royal Mail’s request that it be allowed to modify it’s current Special Delivery Next Day service by introducing a new ‘high value’ service and lowering the maximum compensation value on standard Secial Delivery items from GBP 2500 to GBP 500. The request was initially centered around the transit of jewellery items but has now been modified to appease concerns raised by Postcomm and others.

Postcomm organised a consultation based on the original proposal and 318 responses were received which included concerns from jewellery suppliers, the British Hallmarking Council, foreign exhanges suppliers, and even QVC the TV shopping channel. The biggest response was from those involved in the sale and supply of jewellery who felt that being forced into using the SDHV service would be costly and discriminatory.

The original application was made in 2006/7 and included a request to increase SDND from GBP 4.10 to GBP 8.90 but concerns by the jewellery industry that items requiring reworking and therefore posting numerous times would simply become unprofitable.

Royal Mail’s proposal that a Special Delivery High Value (SDHV) service be introduced that would still have the GBP 2500 compensation protection but a delivery target of 3pm, also raised concerns over postal workers safety in transporting such goods. Postcomm also felt that singling out jewellery would be unfair as other goods of similar value would effectively be on a cheaper tariff so Royal Mail was asked to look again at their proposal and come up with a less discriminatory scheme.

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