GOVERNMENT approval of Royal Mail’s sale to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky offers the best hope for renationalising the historic postal service, Communication Workers Union (CWU) said today.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds also announced a raft of legally binding commitments as the government sanctioned the sale to the foreign equity investor’s EP Group.

These include granting the government a “golden share” in the more than 500-year-old service, which means it must approve any key changes to Royal Mail’s ownership, headquarters location and tax residency.

EP Group has also made further agreements with unions representing Royal Mail’s front-line staff and managers — the CWU and Unite respectively — for at least the next five years.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said that although its “groundbreaking” negotiators’ settlement will be subject to a review in April 2028 “we are confident we are not going to get anything better than that at this time … the onus is on them to take them away, so the confidence we have is in our own members, in the strength of the union.”

He added: “Taking a golden share … I think that that's the best platform that the union could get for a potential renationalisation in the future if this doesn’t work out.

“The political context of it is they [the government] cannot sit on the side going forward.”

Mr Ward said EP Group has committed not to sell off, break up or  introduce franchising or outsourcing to Royal Mail, keeping it as an end-to-end service under its settlement with CWU.

He added the union’s settlement ensures that Royal Mail “will not operate as a gig economy employer” with no plans to introduce “what we call owner-drivers which is the predominant employment model in the rest of the sector into Royal Mail for the future.”

“These are important commitments and with the government backing that up with the protections they've achieved, we think we are in the best possible situation,” he said.

CWU’s agreement also includes “serious protections against asset stripping” and introduces a “radical new governance and business model” granting the union and workers a greater say in the company’s future.

With the government’s agreement protecting Royal Mail’s estimated £1.4bn pension surplus, CWU’s deal has “gone one further” by the introduction of an employee collective benefit trust where 10 per cent of its dividends will be used “for the benefit of employees or for the need to reinvest into Royal Mail.”

EP Group has also committed to no compulsory redundancies as part of reforms to the universal service obligation (USO), currently being assessed by regulator Ofcom, said Mr Ward.

It also vowed to end the two-tier working arrangement which saw a spate of CWU strikes in 2022, he said, adding that “on the face of it” Mr Kretinsky had “more ambition” and is receptive to CWU’s proposals for Royal Mail than the current board.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This agreement opens the door to a better future for Royal Mail and its workforce.”

Ofcom is proposing to reform USO by ditching Saturday deliveries for second-class letters while keeping first-class mail six days a week.