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Royal Mail

I welcome this debate on Royal Mail. I also welcome the shadow Business Secretary, who is no longer in his place, to his new role. I can understand why he has been brought into it, because he was certainly entertaining, and the Conservative party needs an entertainment officer as they have not had one on such issues for some time. I did not realise that he had been in charge of the Post Office. I remember disagreeing with him when he was in charge of health, education and the economy. However, I agree with him on many issues, including Europe, and I agreed with him when he told Mrs. Thatcher that it was time to go. It is a shame that he is not in his place, because I am trying to offer him some warm words. Nevertheless, I cannot agree with his motion because, as my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham, East (Mr. Heppell) said, it is just mischief-making, and this is a serious debate about a serious issue. I welcome many of the interesting recommendations made by Hooper in his report, particularly on the universal service obligation, which is very important to areas such as mine which are on the periphery and rely on the six-days-a-week service. We do not have very fast broadband and a poor gas network, but at least we have our USO. We need the post delivered on time in a daily fashion like the rest of the United Kingdom. When the Business and Enterprise Committee considers the details of the future of the Post Office, I urge it to develop the issues that the Government have raised about establishing better financial services for the Post Office network. That is a good idea, and it has come not only from the Conservative party; it has consensus around it. Among the best services that the Post Office provides is the exchange service for the pound against foreign currencies, where it has been very successful. On the post office card account, the Government were right to provide that security and foundation to the post office network for the future, and we need to build on that. Given the crisis in the financial sector, the trusted brand that is the Post Office is a good way of providing such services to local communities across the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I do not have much time left to give an alternative to what has been said about this issue being just about privatisation and the public sector. There are other models that the Business and Enterprise Committee and the Department should consider. In Wales, we all get water provided by Glas Cymru, which is the owner of Welsh Water. It is a not-for-profit organisation—a company limited by guarantee. It provides an excellent service, and Hooper dismisses it too quickly in his report. It is a successful model that could be used in delivering monopoly services such as mail, although I understand that there is the issue of European regulations. Its activities are funded and financed by bonds. It has within its organisation specialist contract partners employed by Welsh Water following a procurement process. That business model improves service delivery by employing the best contract partner for each distinct activity within the business. Looking at the postal business globally, I can see that type of model helping to deliver services. It is an example of the kind of partnership within a monopoly that Hooper dismisses so quickly. The company also has the unique distinction of paying annual bonuses to its customers—dividends are given on annual basis by reducing the bills—and it is able to get guaranteed loans over a period whereby it can reinvest in the company infrastructure. That is also worth considering when we talk about universal postal services. This is not about private versus public alone; we need to go beyond that.