When the board of Royal Mail’s parent company rolled over in May and recommended a £3.6bn takeover offer from a Daniel Křetínský-led bid vehicle, one reason it gave was “significant uncertainty” around regulatory reform.
That was a fair description at the time of Ofcom’s leisurely approach to reviewing the universal service obligation (USO), the requirement on Royal Mail to deliver nationwide six days a week at a uniform price. Even as letter volumes plunged, the regulator had danced around the question of reform for half a decade and, even in review mode since new year, still wasn’t being clear about what it might accept.
