The £1bn sale of part of Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant sorting office – due to be completed after privatisation – has sparked fears that a new owner could asset-strip the business instead of reinvesting.
Plans to sell off half the flagship sorting office in central London will see the transformation of the five-hectare (12-acre) site into flats.
The company owns a swathe of high-value land across the UK, and shadow postal affairs minister Ian Murray has called on the Government to ensure any land sale profits are ring-fenced for reinvestment in the modernisation programme.
He said: “There are currently no safeguards as to what might happen to any assets that might be sold. Some venture capitalists will be circling. They may buy it on the cheap, because the Government are desperate to get rid of it and get it off their books, and then start selling off prize assets.
“Rather than hundreds of millions of pounds they get from the sale of Mount Pleasant going back into Royal Mail following, it could go straight into the coffers of a private-equity company, no doubt into a tax haven. What they have to do is make sure with any of these massive asset sales every single penny of it is ring-fenced into the modernisation programme.”
The move follows the £120m sale of another central London site, in Rathbone Place, just off Oxford Street.
The government passed the privatise Royal Mail bill last year, allowing the company to be sold off by the end of 2013 at the earliest, although any sale is unlikely to take place until 2014.
Royal Mail property director Martin Gafsen said: “Royal Mail has a clear strategy to ensure we derive maximum value from any property we no longer require for our operations. We have a strong track record in using the proceeds from disposal of surplus property to invest in the mail operation.”
Related stories
Royal Mail site sale raises £120m
