Tag: Royal Mail

Vat plan may add 5p to cost of stamps

Posted by | Jan 9, 2005 | |

Postal regulators are calling on the government to levy Vat on stamps that could add 5p to the cost of sending a first-class letter. Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show that Postcomm is in “negotiations” with the Treasury and the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI). The regulator believes the special exemption from Vat for Royal Mail stamps will have to be scrapped when the postal market is opened up to full competition next year. A reduced rate of 5% has been proposed but the European Commission may insist the full rate of 17.5% is levied, according to the papers. The exemption is not available to other mail companies hoping to enter the market so would prevent a level playing field. The EC is understood to be pressuring the government on behalf of European companies that are planning to start collecting and delivering British mail from 2006.

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UK Post Office names branches to be closed

Posted by | Jan 6, 2005 | |

The Post Office yesterday caved in to demands that it release details of its sub-post office closure programme and the whereabouts of local offices scheduled to close. The state enterprise finally acceded to a request from the Guardian for the list of offices due for closure by the end of March, rather than face being forced to disclose its plans under new freedom of information rules. Almost 2,500 offices have been singled out as part of a widespread cost-cutting plan. More than 2,000 have already been closed, and the remainder are due to go over the next two months. The Post Office said for the first time yesterday that 396 were threatened with closure and admitted that, notwithstanding last minute appeals, almost all would shut their doors in the coming weeks.

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Postwatch welcomes select committee report on UK Crown Post Offices

Posted by | Jan 5, 2005 | |

Postwatch today welcomed the Trade and Industry Committee’s report ‘Crown Post Offices’. The report examines Post Office Ltd’s review of their Crown – or Directly Managed – post office network. The Committee’s report raised key concerns, including Ddisparities in customer service levels between Crown post offices and franchise post offices, as revealed in research commissioned by
Postwatch and the postal services regulator Postcomm, the need for Post Office Ltd to better communicate the reasons for converting Directly Managed branches to franchise post offices, and the need for the Government to pay a fair price for services that Post Office Ltd undertakes on its behalf.

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Concern at increase in UK Postwatch spending

Posted by | Jan 4, 2005 | |

Royal Mail is understood to be concerned at the rising expenditure at Postwatch, the consumer group. Accounts for Postwatch in the last financial year showed that Pounds 4 million was spent on staff costs; Pounds 1.7 million on council and secretarial expenses; Pounds 430,000 on networking, travel and subsistence; and Pounds 564,000 on office costs. Staff costs have risen from Pounds 2.7 million and the cost of “other administration” has jumped from Pounds 5.5 million to Pounds 6.2 million. Postwatch has also taken out leases of Pounds 1.65 million to cover the cost of IT and property, and has a deficit of Pounds 261,000. Royal Mail provides more than Pounds 10 million funding a year to Postwatch, but relations between the two have become acrimonious.

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