Tag: UK

Allan Leighton, the chairman of Royal Mail, will present plans for wider ownership of the postal group to the Department of Trade and Industry in the next few weeks.

The proposals, included in a five-year plan for the business, will trigger a heated political fight over the future of Royal Mail but will be presented as moves to give employees more ownership rather than a creeping privatisation.

This week Alan Johnson, the Trade and Industry Secretary, will hear concerns from the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which he once led before he became an MP eight years ago.

Mr Leighton will tell ministers that Royal Mail needs the scale of investment that can be achieved only by bringing in outside capital.

Royal Mail failed to meet its delivery targets for more than 75percent of homes and businesses in Scotland last year, making the country’s postal service the worst in the UK.

The company -which has just announced record profits of Pounds 537m and given Adam Crozier, its Scottish chief executive, a bonus of Pounds 2.2m -managed to meet first-class delivery targets in only three out of 13 postcode areas.

The worst served area was Glasgow, where only 88.8% of letters and packages reached their destination on time. Edinburgh, Inverness and Falkirk fared slightly better at just under 91percent.

Across Scotland, 90.5percent of first-class letters were delivered the next working day, compared with a minimum target of 92.5percent and national averages in England, Wales and Northern Ireland of 91.5percent, 91.9percent and 90.7percent respectively.