Last post for Royal Mail?

Royal Mail's promise to deliver to every home in Britain is under threat, government advisers have warned.

Their report concludes that two years of competition has been a disaster for both the firm and its customers, who have seen steep stamp price rises, the end of the second post and thousands of Post Office closures.

The only winners have been big business and Royal Mail's rivals, which have cherry-picked its juiciest contracts.

Firms such as TNT and Deutsche Post now collect around one in five of the 20 billion items posted each year.

Royal Mail still delivers this post the "final mile" to our homes. But strict price controls mean it is losing around 2p per item for this pleasure - more than £40m last year.