Royal Mail - History - From 1960

From 1960

Under the Post Office Act 1969 the General Post Office was changed from a government department to a statutory corporation, known simply as the Post Office. The office of Postmaster General was abolished and replaced with the positions of Chairman and Chief Executive in the new company.

During the 1980s both British Telecom and Girobank were split off from the Post Office and sold, however the postal services section remained in public ownership as privatisation of this was deemed to be too unpopular. However in the 1990s President of the Board of Trade Michael Heseltine began investigating a possible sale and eventually a Green Paper on Postal Reform was published in May 1994, outlining various options for privatisation. The ideas though, proved controversial and were dropped from the 1994 Queen's Speech after a number of Conservative MPs warned Heseltine they would not vote for the legislation.

After a change of government in 1997, the Labour administration decided to keep the Post Office state-owned but with more commercial freedom. This led to the Postal Services Act 2000, where the Post Office became a public limited company renamed Consignia plc. However, the change proved to be highly unpopular with both the public and even the organisation's own employees, with the Communication Workers Union boycotting the name. In 2002, the organisation adopted the name of the letters delivery business, becoming Royal Mail Group plc with the following operating divisions:

• Royal Mail, delivering letters
• Parcelforce, delivering parcels
• Post Office Limited, managing the nationwide network of post office branches as retail outlets.

As part of the 2000 Act the government set up a postal regulator, the Postal Services Commission, known as Postcomm, which offered licences to private companies to deliver mail. In 2001, the Consumer Council for Postal Services, known as Postwatch, was created for consumers to express any concerns they may have with the postal service in Britain.

From 1 January 2006, the Royal Mail lost its 350-year monopoly and the British postal market became fully open to competition.

On 1 October 2008, Postwatch was merged into the new consumer watchdog, Consumer Focus.

In 2008, due to a continuing fall in mail volumes the government commissioned an independent review of the postal services sector by Richard Hooper, the former deputy chairman of Ofcom. The recommendations in the Hooper Review led to Business Secretary Lord Mandelson to seek to part privatise the company by selling a minority stake to a commercial partner. However despite legislation for the sale passing the House of Lords, it was abandoned in the House of Commons after strong opposition from backbench Labour MPs. The government later cited the difficult economic conditions for the reason behind the retreat.

After the departure of Adam Crozier to ITV on 27 May 2010, Royal Mail appointed Canadian Moya Greene as Chief Executive, the first woman to hold the post.

Following the 2010 general election the new Business Secretary in the Coalition government, Vince Cable, asked Richard Hooper to update his report. Based on the Hooper Review Update the government passed the Postal Services Act 2011. The Act allows for up to 90% of Royal Mail to be privatised with at least 10% of shares being held by Royal Mail employees.

As part of the 2011 Act, Postcomm was merged into the communications regulator Ofcom on 1 October 2011, with Ofcom introducing a new simplified set of regulations for postal services on 27 March 2012. On 31 March 2012 the government took over the historic assets and liabilities of the Royal Mail pension scheme which ran at a considerable deficit. On 1 April 2012 Royal Mail's subsidiary Post Office Ltd was separated from the group. The Act also contains the option for Post Office Ltd to become a mutual organisation in the future.

During the 2012 London Olympics, Royal Mail offered an incentive for Team GB athletes to win Gold Medals through the promise to paint a postbox in the hometown of each recipient gold and a box near Westminster Abbey was painted gold as a demonstration model. Similarly, special sets of stamps were, and will continue to be, introduced for all British 2012 Olympic Gold Medal athletes, the first being for rowers Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, who won the women's coxless pair. This is the first time that stamps have been issued one day after the event they commemorate.