Tell Ofcom – bring Royal Mail into public ownership

Ofcom, the government regulator responsible, is asking the public for views on plans to reduce Royal Mail’s legal obligation to deliver letters 6 days a week.

Don’t let them get away with this. Use our handy six-step guide to respond to the Ofcom consultation – it only takes five minutes. But you haven’t got long – this Wednesday, 3rd April at midnight is the deadline. It is time to return to a Royal Mail that works for people, not profit. And that means taking it into public ownership.

The background

When Royal Mail was privatised in 2013-15 we were promised that we the public would get just as good if not better service. 

Vince Cable, the business secretary at the time, said the “overarching objective” of privatisation was to secure the universal service obligation that requires deliveries to any UK home six days a week. And now the private multinational corporation that owns Royal Mail wants to cut the number of days they deliver letters from 6 to 3 days a week.

Posties play a vital role in our communities. They deliver the ‘last mile’ from Lands End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland – delivering the post to the parts private operators can’t reach.

The company has already been instructing posties to deprioritise letters, which is causing serious problems. It matters whether we receive our letters – doctor and hospital appointments, bank cards, voting information, and birthday cards! It matters for businesses and the economy too. 

The real problem is that our Royal Mail, which was a 500 year old successful institution before privatisation, is now working for a handful of shareholders – not for the British public. 

It should never have been privatised in the first place. Before being sold off, Royal Mail turned a profit and had high levels of customer satisfaction.

Now under privatisation we are paying more for a worse service: stamp prices have more than doubled since 2012, the year before Royal Mail was privatised. Today a 1st class stamp has gone up to £1.35! All the while, over the past five years the company has distributed £1.3 billion through dividends and buybacks

Tell Ofcom today that Royal Mail must deliver letters six days a week – we will not accept any downgrade in service. Find out how.

And tell them that RM should be owned by the public and work for the public. Privatisation has failed, 68% of the public want Royal Mail in public ownership.

You have till midnight on Wednesday 3rd April to send in your views. Can you take 5 minutes or less to submit a response now?

You recently forced the government to u-turn on plans to sell off Channel 4 and close railway ticket offices by responding to their consultations in huge numbers.

Now you have another big opportunity to do the same on Royal Mail.