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Saturday post threat as 30,000 jobs lost

By Ian Drury for the Daily Mail
Updated: 03:20 EDT, 3 November 2008

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Postal deliveries on Saturdays are under threat because the Royal Mail could be forced to axe up to 30,000 jobs in a cost-cutting drive.

Threatened: 30,000 jobs could be lost if Royal Mail sorting offices are closed

Richard Hooper, a former civil servant conducting an independent review of the postal service for the Government, has told MPs and peers that half of the group's 69 sorting offices could be shut.

Labour MPs and unions said the shake-up could see deliveries and collections to homes and businesses reduced to five days a week.

The possibility of scrapping deliveries on Saturdays will also heighten fears for the future of the 'universal service' - the Royal Mail's commitment to deliver letters to every address in Britain at the same price.

On a bleak weekend for the service, MPs also warned that up to 9,000 post offices could close if Royal Mail loses a £200m Government contract.

Fears are mounting that the group will lose the right to run the Post Office Card Account, which processes millions of pensions and benefits payments.

Instead, it could be given to rival bidder PayPoint.

Many post offices make 20% of their income from the card. Losing it could force thousands into closure.

The Royal Mail is already in the middle of a programme to close 2,500 of its 14,000 post offices, while there are fears thousands more could go after 2010.

The threats to Saturday collections and deliveries were raised after Mr Hooper, the former deputy chairman of Ofcom, briefed politicians ahead of the publication of his review of the cash-strapped Royal Mail.

Sources confirmed he suggested closing half of the service's 69 sorting offices, which employ around 60,000.

Mr Hooper spoke of his admiration for the German Bundespost, which operates with far fewer main depots.

MPs and unions last night warned this would 'inevitably' lead to a reduction in postal services.

Lindsay Hoyle, a Labour MP on the Commons' influential business and enterprise committee, said: 'There is a fear that cutting sorting offices and staff will lead to a cut in services, and for some people this would mean putting the Saturday delivery under threat.

'But people and businesses enjoy and need Saturday deliveries - it is a requirement and a necessity. People receive all sorts of things on Saturdays that they can't wait until Monday for.'

He added: 'Just because Richard Hooper says something does not mean it will happen. There would be plenty of opposition.'

The Communications Workers' Union said: 'The public still wants a six-day-a-week universal mail service. It will not tolerate less.'

Mr Hooper, who is due to report his findings to Business Secretary Lord Mandelson as early as this month, said: 'The story about my review is speculation. The Government has not yet received our report.

'Our terms of reference are to maintain the universal postal service. That is what our recommendations are designed to do. However, in an interim report last May he said the 'status quo could not be maintained'.

A spokesman for the Department for Business said: 'We are committed to maintaining a universal postal service that meets the changing needs of consumers and businesses.'

Save our post offices

Financial Mail and This is Money have been fighting post office closures since 2002. See more here...

A service in decline

• The Royal Mail traces its history back to 1516, when Henry VIII established a 'Master of the Posts', which eventually evolved into the office of the Postmaster General

• The Royal Mail service was first made available to the public by Charles I on July 31, 1635, with the recipient paying for postage

• The first adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black, was introduced in May 1840 to enable the sender to pre-pay a single rate for delivery anywhere in the UK

• In modern times the Royal Mail has admitted selling the contents of about 75,000 undelivered packages every year to raise cash

• 2.3m elderly will have to walk more than half a mile to the post office after closures announced in the summer

• Royal Mail was fined £11.4m in 2006 for losing more than 40,000 letters and parcels a day

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