*********Press release 30th July 2024
A new coalition of membership organisations and businesses that represent over 10,000 small and medium-sized UK businesses, serving millions of consumers across the country, today joined forces to make sure the new government understands the importance of protecting the Royal Mail service following the postal scandals which dominated previous parliaments.
The UK’s Greeting Card Association (GCA), 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 chopped back to just three days a week, and potential runaway prices for first class mail.
The incoming 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).
What unites all the groups writing to the minister today 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.
It’s these beliefs that drive the coalition’s alignment around six key points:
- 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.
GCA chief executive officer Amanda Fergusson said:
“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.”
Andrew Goodacre, CEO of BIRA said:
“A postal service based on deliveries six days per week and run efficiently is important to the smaller independent retailers.
“The postal service is an essential partner for these businesses that are changing their business model to meet consumer demand by developing the on-line 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.”
Calum Greenhow, CEO of The National Federation of SubPostmasters said:
“Postmasters are consumer facing in relation to the Universal Service Obligation and as such would be concerned if Royal Mail were allowed to diminish service levels.
“We hear first hand from our customers their concerns about delays to their mail or the inflation busting price rises.
“As such we call for more to be done to ensure that Royal Mail service levels improve and that costs for 1st & 2nd class mail remain within inflation boundaries.”
The GCA, represents a thriving creative industry that contributes £1.5bn to the UK economy.
Ofcom’s own data indicates greeting cards are critical to how Royal Mail is perceived by end consumers. Cards are the most frequent things UK consumers post and 42 per cent of customers now say sending cards is the only time they use Royal Mail.
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Further information: Nick Agarwal Andrea Ross, gca@arena-pr.com
