The postal regulator, which has opened a three-month consultation on the proposals, says the freeze will benefit customers and at the same time allow Royal Mail to make a regulatory profit of around 拢285m a year as well as continue to address its 拢4.5bn pension black hole.
The plans, unveiled in the review 'Royal Mail's Price and Service Quality Regulation from 2006 - Initial Proposals', also call for a revised set of customer service targets.
This would streamline the current 16 targets to 10 and cover new areas such as correct delivery, proportion of mail collected each working day and the proportion of outgoing mail delivered to European destinations within three days.
Nigel Stapleton, chairman of Postcomm, said: "Our proposals seek to strike an appropriate balance between Royal Mail's regulatory freedom in a newly liberalised market and the interests of mail customers and rival postal operators."
The price controls and regulatory changes have been condemned by Royal Mail, with chairman Allan Leighton calling the plans a "kick in the teeth for our people".
"These proposals will literally starve Royal Mail of vital investment and so wreck the quality of service we have fought so hard to improve, " he added.
Postwatch, the watchdog for postal services, said it welcomed most of Postcomm's initial proposals for Royal Mail describing the moves as protection for "captive" domestic customers.
Peter Carr, chairman of Postwatch, said: "The regulator has clearly learnt some of the lessons from the expiring price control. This allowed Royal Mail to increase prices rather than focus on service and internal efficiency. The new proposals represent a better deal for customers and we strongly urge Postcomm's commissioners to resist outside pressure to weaken them post consultation."
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