The Greeting Card Association (GCA), the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira), the Booksellers Association, the National Federation of SubPostmasters, Voice of the Postmaster and Bookshop.org have sent new business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds an open letter urging him to ensure the postal service stays national, reliable and affordable.
The GCA and its coalition partners have been campaigning to prevent the Royal Mail postal service being given a 21st century ‘Beeching Axe’, with second class deliveries cut back to three days a week, and potential runaway prices for first class mail.
The new government, and the department of business, have significant, pending decisions on Royal Mail, including the bid for Royal Mail’s parent company IDS plc by EP Group. and its formal response to Ofcom’s call for input into possible reforms to the Universal Service Obligation (USO).
Uniting the groups is a belief that more price rises and service reductions will accelerate a decline in the British postal service, leading to increasingly frequent requests for bailouts.
The coalition’s six key points are:
- Royal Mail needs to reverse the slide in performance and re-commit to meeting existing performance targets before any changes are agreed for the USO;
- Ofcom’s ‘Future of the Postal Service’ review must facilitate ways for Royal Mail to offer an aligned plan for innovation and growth, grounded in their 500-plus years’ history of public service, and leveraging the trust that postal workers have on every doorstep;
- Both first and second class mail prices should be regulated to avoid further above-inflation rises – including on Saturdays;
- Royal Mail should remain a national service to every household;
- Parcel deliveries should not be prioritised over letter deliveries;
- A national, affordable, and reliable postal service is vital for high streets and communities across the UK.
“A postal service based on deliveries six days per week, and run efficiently, is important to the smaller independent retailers,” states Bira’s ceo Andrew Goodacre. “The postal service is an essential partner for these businesses that are changing their business model to meet consumer demand by developing the online business, not to mention the many thousands of businesses that sell cards. With this in mind, we would expect any change of ownership of Royal Mail to be very closely scrutinised and only allowed to go ahead if there are cast iron commitments from the purchaser to retain and improve what we already have.”
Added the GCA’s ceo Amanda Fergusson: “Consumers and small businesses are united by a desire to see a postal service that gets back to its best. The businesses and consumers our respective organisations represent are now looking to the new administration to recognise the importance of Royal Mail, Post Offices and the associated services communities depend on. Whoever owns it, we need lock-tight, long-term undertakings from Royal Mail on affordability and reliability.”
Top: The postal service is an essential partner for many independents, to include gift retailers.
