'Sell PO Parcels' says think tank
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• The Post Office's parcels service would be more efficient and productive if it was bought by its management, says the right-wing Adam Smith Institute think tank.
Its quality of service would improve once managers and workers owned the company and had a stake in its profits and capital appreciation, as happened when the National Freight Consortium was sold to its employees in 1981, claims the institute in a report on privatisation.
The report, published last week, also targets the Scottish Transport Group arid London Regional Transport for management buyouts. The success of the National Bus privatisation has shown politicians the benefits of this type of takeover, and small privatised bus companies are more flexible and responsive, says the institute. The announcement that London Buses would be divided into 15 units for individual sale could be an opportunity for management buyouts, it adds.
Examples such as National Freight, Leyland Bus and National Bus show that man agement buyouts can work. Managers are in a unique position to know the value of the businesses they run and the steps which can make them more profitable — the privatisation of Leyland Bus, which created a storm in 1986, took place smoothly by management buyout a year later, it says.
Britain's publicly-owned ports could be next in line for privatisation, Transport Secretary Paul Channon has hinted. He told the British Ports Federation that the sale of some of the 74 port authorities was "firmly on the political agenda".