The Post Office should be separated from the Royal Mail to give the business greater commercial freedom, the industry�s regulator suggested yesterday.
The Post Office should be separated from the Royal Mail to give the business greater commercial freedom, the industry's regulator suggested yesterday.
Postcomm said the government should consider the demerger to enable the two "very different" businesses to focus more attention on their "significant, but divergent" problems.
Separation would provide an opportunity to reinforce the identity of each business, one a retail network with a social role, the other made up of communications and logistics with a commercial focus, said Postcomm.
Financial transparency would also be easier to achieve if Royal Mail Group and Post Office were separated, the report said.
Postcomm said a long-term strategy for the organisation was needed to reduce uncertainty, safeguard against further unplanned branch closures and build confidence in a sustainable post office network.
Chairman Nigel Stapleton said: "Sub-postmasters have invested their own money in the network and are currently operating in one of the most challenging economic environments for retail business.Unless the government is able to provide a clear vision for the future of the network, we are concerned that the network will shrink further because of unplanned closures."
Postcomm's annual report was published as the Post Office moved into the final stages of its network change programme, which involves the closure of around 2500 post offices. The government has commissioned a review on postal competition by academic Richard Hooper, which is expected to be published soon.
Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said: "Postcomm is again displaying its incompetence in managing the UK's mail system by making this proposal to demerge the Post Office network from Royal Mail.
"Separation would create greater uncertainty for the network. Royal Mail needs the Post Office to provide a universal service while the Post Office remains dependent on Royal Mail for approximately a third of its revenue. Separation would threaten, not strengthen, this revenue stream.
"Separation is unnecessary to achieve Postcomm's stated objectives which include enabling private operators to access the post office network. This is clearly Postcomm trying to push its own agenda of privatising Royal Mail instead of assessing the real issues facing the mail network."
