Level Playing Field Needed To Save Royal Mail - Öpik

1.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 4th Oct 2007

Commenting on today's Royal Mail strike, Liberal Democrat Shadow Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Secretary, Lembit Öpik MP said: "This strike is a consequence of the impossible position Royal Mail finds itself in, due to unfair Government policy. This has led to the Royal Mail putting its staff in an intolerable situation.

"The strike highlights a crisis which only the ministers can solve, by creating a level playing field between Royal Mail and its competitors.

"Until this happens industrial action is set to further harm a business which is doing its best to remain profitable under a system which makes this impossible.

"I have called on ministers to take the steps which are needed to save the Royal Mail. Unless they do, our national postal system will continue to face disaster."

Notes

1. The Liberal Democrats have fully costed plans to safeguard the future of both post offices and the Royal Mail. The proposals include:

Post Office Ltd separated from Royal Mail Group, with the retention of Post Office Ltd in the public sector, giving post offices the opportunity to develop new business.

The establishment of a shared ownership model for Royal Mail with a 51% majority of shares divided equally between the Government and a trust for Royal Mail staff. 24.5% of the shares would be sold directly to staff and small investors, and 24.5% offered for general sale.

The establishment of an investment fund, likely to be up to £2 billion, from the proceeds of shares to modernise branches. This will provide support for opening new Post Office branches where there are serious gaps in the existing network, and start-up investment capital for sub-post offices wishing to diversify into offering additional services to local communities.

A statutory guarantee to protect the universal service obligation (USO).

Powers enabling Postcomm to place a levy on other operators who do not undertake the USO to pay towards its cost.