Royal Mail asks to stop Saturday letter deliveries

Royal Mail has asked the government if it can stop its letter deliveries on Saturdays, as it seeks to turn its fortunes around after slumping to a loss in the first half of the year.

The business said it wanted to move from a six-days-a-week letter delivery to five, from Monday to Friday only.

However, parcel services would continue to run all days of the week.

It came as Royal Mail reported a £219m underlying operating loss for the six months to 25 September.

Keith Williams, non-executive chair of Royal Mail's owner International Distributions Services, said "urgent reform" was needed, to ensure a sustainable future.

"[The] government has now been approached to seek an early move to five day letter delivery, whilst we continue to improve parcel services," he said.