Government plans to mutualise the Post Office as part of Royal Mail privatisation would give Post Office owners more say in how the service is run.

Today, business secretary Vince Cable has unveiled plans to turn the network of 11,500 Post Offices into a partnership similar to John Lewis, or a mutualised company similar to the Co-operative Group.

Either plan would give Post Office owners more control over the direction of the service.

Cable outlined the plan in the postal services bill, in which the government said it would sell the Royal Mail.

The sale could lead to a large number of redundancies among 160,000 Royal Mail staff and subsequent industrial action.

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