Property sales bonanza scam

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Royal Mail privatisation: Government accused of selling on the cheap before property sales bonanza

The postal service is lining up to offload a number of mail centres and delivery offices that will net a windfall in the billions of pounds

The Government has been accused of selling Royal Mail on the cheap before the postal giant rakes in a fortune from a property bonanza.

The sale is expected to value the business at up to £3.3billion.

But Royal Mail is lining up to offload a number of mail centres and delivery offices that will net a huge windfall.

Among the sites are eight acres at the Mount Pleasant centre in North London, which will become luxury homes and could generate up to £1billion.

Estimates for the Nine Elms site in South London are put at up to £500million and a third site is set to be sold in Paddington, West London, with other sites identified as development “potential”.

In the prospectus for the Royal Mail sale, its freehold property estate is estimated at just £787million.

Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna will demand answers from ministers next week.

He said: “We already know that the Government’s fire sale of Royal Mail is going to hit consumers and small businesses who rely on its services day in day out.

“But now, in the absence of answers from ministers, there are real fears that taxpayers are going to be considerably short changed by the low sale price.

“Royal Mail has a huge property portfolio in prime development sites in London and across Britain and there is nothing to stop the privatised company making a quick buck by flogging off these assets for development.

“Ministers need to come clean on which sites are due to be sold and what valuation has taken place.

“There are fears that Royal Mail’s valuation has not properly taken the potential sell off of property assets into account which could mean the taxpayer is cheated.”

The company wants to reduce the number of centres from 45 to 37 by 2016.

But there are fears about how many of the 1,400 delivery offices will go after the sale.

Campaign group Save our Royal Mail said people could “suddenly find they have to travel long distances to collect parcels and other recorded items".

The Royal Mail refused to comment yesterday.

[Budfrog]

So the taxpayer takes on the pension scheme (up to March 2012) and private investors reap the rewards of a profitable company with a large property portfolio >>> "Happy Times" I'd Say (to be be a Tory). Still at least we can be condfident that the welfare of employees and service to the customer will continue to be high on the list of managerial priorities