Royal Mail’s plea to end six-day deliveries rejected | Business

The government has rejected a plea from Royal Mail to cut its legal obligation to deliver letters to businesses and homes from six days a week to five.

Previously unpublished correspondence with the government, obtained by The Times under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that Simon Thompson, chief executive of the heavily lossmaking Royal Mail, wrote to Kwasi Kwarteng, who was business secretary, in May asking for an end to its commitment to deliver on Saturdays.

Despite the rejection by Kwarteng of the request to reform the “universal service obligation”, the privatised postal network and letters monopoly has gone public, stating that without the go-ahead to change the way it operates, it faces financial ruin.

• Royal Mail losses rise to £450m

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