Royal Mail’s owner considering job cuts and price rises for stamps and parcels
The company that owns Royal Mail is considering job cuts and price rises on stamps and parcels as it blamed the Labour government’s first budget in 14 years for adding £120m to its costs,International Distribution Services (IDS) said the government’s decision to raise employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) compounded challenges for the business as it faces one of the most turbulent periods in the history of its 508-year-old subsidiary, Royal Mail,The group, which is the subject of a takeover bid, took a £134m writedown on the value of Royal Mail and said the NICs changes would cost the business about £120m a year from 2025-26,Royal Mail is one of the UK’s largest employers, with 130,000 staff,Martin Seidenberg, chief executive, said: “We’re seeing quite a massive burden coming our way in terms of the national insurance increase.
We are looking at a bunch of measures and it’s just too early to say what we’re going to do exactly,“I cannot rule out any price increases,But it’s not just about consumer stamps, we are looking at all products … that includes parcels and also business mail,”Seidenberg said job cuts were also being considered,“We are looking at all options.
But anything that does impact our people would be a last resort … we’re working through the details of the impact,” he added.A rise in the price of stamps would come on top of five increases in first-class stamps in less then three years, including a 30p rise to £1.65 last month.Seidenberg was speaking as IDS reported half-year results that showed a significant improvement, with overall operating losses of £26m reduced from the £243m deficit recorded at this point last year.IDS reported a 10% rise in revenues to £6.
4bn in the 26 weeks to the end of September.It said it had achieved an adjusted operating profit of £61m when stripping out one-off factors.“We are delivering on the changes we can control, but the cost environment is worsening just at the time when we need to invest,” said Seidenberg.The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which has engaged in a series of disputes with the company over pay and conditions, said the results showed that Royal Mail was in good health and did not need to make severe cuts.“For the overall company to already essentially be at break-even point after years of gross mismanagement is a testament to the work of every postal worker in the UK,” the union said.
“It also shows the company can have a brighter future if the focus goes back to properly rewarding its employees and delivering for its customers,”The company said the impending increase to costs bolstered its case for reform of the universal service obligation (USO), the rules governing when and how often Royal Mail must deliver in the UK,The company is required to deliver post from Monday to Saturday nationwide under the terms of the USO,Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionHowever, Royal Mail has put forward a plan to reduce second-class deliveries to alternate weekdays,The CWU has so far opposed cost-cutting plans to pare back services.
Industrial action by the union was among the factors contributing to the company plunging to a £1bn loss in the year to March 2023,Soon after, the company lost its 360-year monopoly on the delivery of parcels from Post Office sites, while it has also faced heavy criticism for failing to deliver 80% of first-class letters on time,This year, IDS agreed to a £3,6bn takeover offer from the Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský, prompting the government to examine the potential impact on UK infrastructure from the deal and scrutinise any national security risks,Křetínský has promised to cut costs at the company and restore it to a sound financial footing, in a takeover saga that started in April.
Křetínský is awaiting the government’s verdict, though IDS bosses said on Thursday that they expected the deal to be complete by March, pending the government review.The Cabinet Office “called in” the proposed takeover in August.An initial 45-day timeline for the review has passed, indicating that the government extended the period of scrutiny.A Cabinet Office spokesperson declined to comment.
UK politics: UK would comply with Netanyahu arrest warrant, says No 10 – as it happened
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Pro-Brexit views not protected from workplace discrimination, tribunal rules
Supporting Brexit is not a belief that is protected from workplace discrimination, an employment tribunal has ruled, as a former Ukip councillor lost her claim that she was bullied and harassed by her charity employer because she supported the UK’s departure from the EU.Colette Fairbanks was sacked from her job at the drug and alcohol rehabilitation charity Change Grow Live after sharing “offensive” posts about immigrants on social media, a tribunal hearing was told.Fairbanks argued that her political views were philosophical beliefs protected by the Equality Act. These included a belief the UK should be outside of the EU, an opposition to illegal migration and being happy to leave the European convention on human rights.However the tribunal found that these were not beliefs protected by the Equality Act
‘He was for us’: everyone has anecdotes about John Prescott in his village
In the village of Sutton, which John Prescott called home, everybody has their own anecdote about the Labour heavyweight.For some, it was simply that they had seen him walking his dog, or out and about in his slippers, but others had more colourful stories to tell.At Dresu, a women’s clothes shop, the co-owner Michelle Auker remembers police swarming the village when Greenpeace protesters scaled the roof of Prescott’s family home; her colleague Sam Waud recalls his wife, Pauline, ordering him “naughty” birthday cakes – in the shape of “boobs and stuff” – from Skelton’s cake shop in Hull.Many here will tell you his favourite restaurant was Mr Chu’s on St Andrew’s Quay in Hull, or that he was never absent from the remembrance service in the village.Colin Foulston, 87, enjoying a pint with a friend in the Duke of York pub, said that despite his larger-than-life character, Prescott was quite a private man, and wasn’t often seen out drinking in the village
Growing up with Nigel Farage: inside Reform UK’s push for the next election
It was the grand finale of Reform UK’s September conference and Nigel Farage had a serious message to deliver: it was time for Reform to “grow up” and professionalise.He couldn’t do it alone, he told 4,000 hyped-up members who had paid £50 each to bask in his presence.“We will not realise our dream unless the people’s army of supporters are organised, unless the people’s army of supporters are helped to professionalise, unless that people’s army fight elections,” he said. “What we have to do is to be credible. What we have to do is to be on the ground everywhere
UK imposes asset freezes and travel bans on three ‘kleptocrats’
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, claimed he was bringing the “golden age of money laundering” to an end as he announced UK financial sanctions against three high-profile alleged kleptocrats and their key enablers.On Thursday, the Foreign Office (FCDO) announced sanctions including asset freezes and travel bans on Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian billionaire, Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s former president, and Aivars Lembergs, a Latvian oligarch.The UK has long faced criticism from anti-corruption campaigners for an unquestioning attitude towards foreign investors. That approach came under particular scrutiny after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when the UK government under the Conservatives belatedly sought to freeze assets belonging to alleged allies of Vladimir Putin.Lammy said the tide was turning on corruption after a long period when the previous government allowed the role of London as a money laundering capital to continue
John Prescott, British former deputy prime minister, dies aged 86
Politicians of all stripes have lined up to pay tribute to John Prescott, the former British deputy prime minister and stalwart of the New Labour movement, who has died aged 86.Prescott, who had Alzheimer’s, died peacefully in a care home on Thursday morning, according to a statement from his family. He served as deputy prime minister for more than a decade under Tony Blair and played a pivotal role in his government.Blair said Prescott had been “one of the most talented people I ever encountered in politics, one of the most committed and loyal, and definitely the most unusual … There were no rules he really abided by”.During his time in office, Prescott was seen as a custodian of traditional Labour values in the face of a modernising leadership
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