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Royal Mail

I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to this important debate, and I shall try to be quick because I know that others want to speak. In common with many areas of the country, my constituency of Reading, East has not been immune to the failings of the Royal Mail. For the last couple of years, I have been involved in a campaign to prevent the local sorting office from closing. That has had an impact on workers; we are losing hundreds of jobs because of the closure. Many people have already been laid off and hundreds more have been, as they put it, left hanging in limbo. The Royal Mail is moving the office to a £20 million mail centre in Swindon, and despite my best efforts to save those jobs—indeed, I arranged an all-party group to see the previous Minister responsible for postal services, the hon. Member for Poplar and Canning Town (Jim Fitzpatrick)—I have unfortunately been unable to put a halt to the process. I have had regular meetings with employees, and I held a surgery recently at my local sorting centre. It is clear to see the human impact of the failings of this commercial organisation, and if change does not take place, even more jobs will be lost in the years to come. The closure is due, in part, to the failure of the Royal Mail's national management. It has failed to get a grip on many of the problems that it has faced over the past decade. In Reading, as in the rest of the country, one of those problems is the fact, mentioned by many hon. Members, that the technology used is seriously behind the times. The Royal Mail chose to close its sorting centre in Reading to move to Swindon and, consequently, hundreds of people have been left out of work. I turn to the Hooper report, which was published at the end of last year. The review makes it clear that one of the principal threats to the Royal Mail comes from technology and the massive explosion in digital media, the internet and mobile technology. As many have said, that has prompted a substantial decline in the number of letters being sent by consumers. Another factor is the Royal Mail's outdated sorting procedures, as compared with those of other European countries. When I met the Minister responsible for postal services last year, I pressed him hard on that point. I repeat what I said to him then: modernisation is crucial to the Royal Mail so that it can compete properly in the wider market that is now open to all European competitors. As I said, my local sorting office on Caversham road is unfortunately going to close, but I believe that the Minister probably now accepts that there is an urgent need for considerable investment in new sorting equipment. Otherwise, many other sorting offices around the country will close and more jobs will be lost. Poor industrial relations have dogged Royal Mail for years, and the disputes that have come about as a result are well documented. In my constituency there have been local tensions between the management and the Communication Workers Union. Such disputes are holding back Royal Mail, and I appeal to the CWU and the management of Royal Mail to stop their endless conflicts and get on with saving and modernising the business. That is clearly what most employees want. The most high-profile recommendation in the report is that Royal Mail should be part-privatised. The Minister seemed to get in a bit of a state about whether to admit that it will be privatised. That is recommended so that the expertise and capital investment necessary to modernise the business can be brought in. The opportunity to use that private capital and expertise will improve postal services and could give Royal Mail a new lease of life by enabling it to compete with other companies on equal terms. Nearly two months after the publication of Hooper's proposals, the Government are still yet to provide serious details—the meat on the bone—of what they actually intend to do. It is about time that we began to hear their detailed plans. If we do not, there will be more damaging speculation about what the future holds and more uncertainty for the employees of Royal Mail. We all know that Royal Mail faces very serious challenges and is grappling with the process of modernisation. The Hooper review argued strongly that now is the time to act, and it is clear that the status quo is no longer tenable. It is time for Royal Mail to modernise, or it will face continued decline. I hope, for its own sake and that of its remaining workers in my constituency, that it is given the opportunity to thrive again.