Royal Mail deal moves closer

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Last week, with little fanfare, a small bit of history was made. For the first time, after a tortuous, 27-year journey, a bill setting up the privatisation of the Royal Mail was passed by the House of Commons.

Michael Heseltine did not manage it in 1994. Margaret Beckett did not manage it four years later. Even the Prince of Darkness himself, Peter Mandelson, gave up the ghost in 2009. Ed Davey, the postal affairs minister, is to be congratulated that he has succeeded where so many have previously failed.

Now comes the hard bit. Investors need two things to make an investment worthwhile. Regulatory certainty over what they might be buying into if the multi-billion pound sale is to ever get off the starting blocks. And knowledge that they will receive a fair return on their investment.

At this stage it is not clear they will get either. UK regulation of the Royal Mail is overly gold-plated when compared with competitors in the European Union. Some 80pc of revenues is subject to price control by Postcomm, which also has a say on any new product launches or price rises.

The Government has already announced that Postcomm will be swallowed whole by Ofcom, the communications regulator. That change should be used as the ideal opportunity to liberalise the regime that the Royal Mail operates under and make it fit for the private sector.

Senior figures at the Royal Mail complain that they are forced to deliver for commercial clients at a loss, basically a subsidy for competitors. Moya Greene, the relatively new chief executive, knows that will have to change if this process is to have any chance of success.

[borders]

love this article from the Torygraph !! especially this - ''And knowledge that they will receive a fair return on their investment''.

and how will they derive this fair return on their investment

[DirtyHarry]

I'd love the chance to create a bit of "history", myself.
How does consigning the "Telegraph" to the dustbin sound?

Honestly, just how businesses like the "Telegraph" remain intact, free from the wrath of a justifiably angry public, I don't know, I really don't.