AN investigation into systemic delivery failures by Royal Mail has been welcomed by MP Ian Liddell-Grainger. 

OFCOM has launched a full-on inquiry after complaints about late or missed deliveries, which Mr Liddell-Grainger said had been piling up during the past two years.

The probe was initiated after it emerged that Royal Mail had missed delivery targets in every single postcode area this summer, with rates of first class deliveries as low as 73 per cent in some cases. 

Postal workers have said the problems were caused by the company concentrating on the lucrative paid-for sector at the expense of standard deliveries, and have spoken of increasingly hostile reactions from the public. 

Mr Liddell-Grainger, who currently represents West Somerset but will be the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for a new constituency taking in large areas around Wellington, said consumers accepted the pandemic had brought unavoidable disruptions to the postal service, but matters had since become steadily worse.

He said: “People are missing hospital appointments as a result of a service which descends deeper into chaos with every increase in the cost of a stamp. 

“It is especially galling for older people who can remember when we had one of the best post services in the world, and when if you posted a local-destination before nine it would be delivered by second post later that morning.

“Royal Mail is now a total shambles and I trust this long-overdue investigation will rapidly identify the management failures which are clearly responsible for this appalling situation.”