Royal Mail has no more excuses to avoid fixing its failing business

The problem is that the USO can only be scrapped with Parliament’s say-so and it is refusing to play ball, business minister Kevin Hollinrake has announced.

“As you will be aware, we currently have no plans to change the minimum requirements of the universal postal service,” he said in a letter to the business select committee, which is probably about as conclusive a statement as you’re likely to find.

The Government’s position, Hollinrake explains, is that “the ability to send and receive letters and parcels is important both socially and economically”, particularly for more vulnerable people. That carries some weight but risks being somewhat outdated.

The UK is behind other parts of Europe in refusing to scale back services.

In France, scores of towns are no longer receiving post on a daily basis as part of an experimental new system introduced in response to a marked fall in the number of envelopes sent by mail; Norway’s Posten Norge delivers on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday, then the following week only on Tuesday and Thursday; in Finland, the postal service delivers every day but only in certain areas with others receiving deliveries every other day. These are then rotated.

And the Government seems to be ignoring the results of an Ofcom survey, in which 97pc of UK users said a five-day-a-week letter service would be sufficient to meet their needs, as well the regulator’s estimations that axing Saturday letter deliveries would save Royal Mail up to £225m per year.

So it is possible to have some sympathy with the company’s demands. But with the Government ruling out an end to the USO, the Royal Mail now has no choice but to grasp the nettle and dramatically improve its service rather than relying on ministers to fix its problems.