Following the annual conference of the Communication Workers Union, the group has decided to restart the “Keep the Post Public” campaign which was initially run in 2010 and 2011 before Parliament passed the Postal Services Act which essentially laid down the framework for privatising Royal Mail.
Huge debate is still going on as to whether privatisation is the right move for the postal service. The Government coalition passed the enabling legislation last summer to allow the sale of Royal Mail in an effort to modernise the UK’s service provider as mail volumes decrease.
At Yes Response, we support the “Keep the Post Public” campaign and don’t wish to see privatisation of Royal Mail. There may be criticisms of the service provided, but overall it is important to remember the great cost-effectiveness of sending items across the country using our postal service. Deregulation often results not in the intended competitiveness and increased service offerings, but rather in a much poorer service for customers – we need only to look at the utilities companies to see this. At the same time, however, Royal Mail does need to become more commercial and ensure that they are not only doing what they need to in order to be profitable and enable ongoing investment, but are focusing on their customers and responding to the industry’s needs.
Of course, with the ever-increasing popularity of online shopping, e-commerce companies continue to grow and expand, and of course an efficient postal service is key to their success.
