Royal Mail should only deliver second-class letters to “protect” the future of the UK’s postal industry, proposed the industry regulator.
Ofcom has said that the universal service obligation (USO) must be reformed because people send fewer letters each year, but that stamp prices continue to increase.
The price at a price -price – AnyWhere USO means that Royal Mail must deliver after six days a week, Monday to Saturday and packages from five from Monday to Friday.
Ofcom said that Royal Mail should continue to deliver first class letters six days a week, but that second class will be limited to alterings during the week and not on Saturday.
“The world has changed, we send a third of the letters we were 20 years ago,” said Natalie Black, director of the OFCOM group for networks and communications.
“We must reform postal service to protect its future and ensure that it delivers to the entire United Kingdom.”
The number of letters that Royal Mail offers went from a peak of 20 billion in 2004-2005 to 6.6 billion last year.
However, the price of stamps continued to increase. Since 2022, Royal Mail has increased the cost of a first class five times from 85p to £ 1.65.
It also increased the cost of a second -class stamp over the same period from 66p to 85p.
Ofcom said that changes in second -class deliveries could save the Royal Mail as far as the loss between 250 million pounds sterling and 425 million pounds sterling.
“This could allow it to improve reliability and redeploy existing resources to growth areas such as packages,” he said.
Royal Mail’s parent company is sold to a company controlled by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky in an agreement worth 3.6 billion pounds Sterling, after the government of labor approved last year.
The government will maintain a “gold share”, which means that Mr. Kretinsky’s activities will have to obtain the approval of any modification of the property of Royal Mail, the site of its registered office and its tax residence.
Royal Mail must also join the USO, which Mr. Kretinsky has promised that he will do “as long as I am alive”.
