page_title: Green Paper on Postal Reform
hierarchical_section_title: Green Paper on Postal Reform
caption_attribution_description: English: British Prime Minister John Major in the Terme Hotel on Ilidza Compound in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, during Operation Joint Endeavor.
context_page_description: The Green Paper on Postal Reform was a United Kingdom government draft plan to privatise and regulate the UK postal services. It set out various options, the key points of the plan being,
  writing into law a universal service obligation for 6-day a week delivery and "affordable" prices
  a new independent regulator enforcing standards in a new Citizens' charter
  keeping Post Office Counters under the same arrangement, with 19,000 privately run offices and 800 Crown offices
  introducing more competition by further reducing the postal monopoly from £1
  Then it laid out the different options for consultation of,
  a 100% privatisation in a Stock Exchange flotation to the public and employees, making the Royal Mail a public company,
  a provisional conclusion to privatise Royal Mail and Parcelforce, with the government retaining 49% of shares in private companies, or,
  giving more commercial freedom to Royal Mail and Parcelforce while leaving them in public ownership.
  In the event, the plans did not go through. It met with support from Post Office managers, who advocated full sale because in their view this was the only way to achieve commercial freedom.
context_section_description: The Green Paper on Postal Reform (Department of Trade and Industry, 1994) was a United Kingdom government draft plan to privatise and regulate the UK postal services. It set out various options, the key points of the plan being,
  writing into law a universal service obligation for 6-day a week delivery and "affordable" prices
  a new independent regulator enforcing standards in a new Citizens' charter
  keeping Post Office Counters (now Post Office Ltd) under the same arrangement, with 19,000 privately run offices and 800 Crown offices
  introducing more competition by further reducing the postal monopoly from £1
  Then it laid out the different options for consultation of,
  a 100% privatisation in a Stock Exchange flotation to the public and employees, making the Royal Mail a public company,
  a provisional conclusion to privatise Royal Mail and Parcelforce, with the government retaining 49% of shares in private companies, or,
  giving more commercial freedom to Royal Mail and Parcelforce while leaving them in public ownership.
  In the event, the plans did not go through. It met with support from Post Office managers, who advocated full sale because in their view this was the only way to achieve commercial freedom. It met with opposition from unions, much of the public and backbench Conservative MPs.
caption: John Major's government proposed to privatise the post, as it had done with telecoms and was doing with rail.
exif: {}