ProM
Cartus are based in Bath or Bristol I believe. They have a list of preferred Estate Agents all over the country - no doubt there is a deal tied up there i.e. they, Cartus, will get commission from the Estate Agents, as well as from the removal companies - on top of the huge fee they charge NATS.
This would be fair enough if they, Cartus, listened to the staff they are relocating. People who live somewhere have a much better idea about estate agents to use etc than some office bod sitting hundreds of miles away, yet Cartus disregard them and use their preferred agents. I know of numerous cases where this has meant that prices achieved for houses have been lower than they should be, which NATS then has to cover.
Also removal costs. A colleague of mine thought that the cost quoted by the company Cartus provided was over the top, so he went about getting his own quote in a bid to save the company some money (removal costs are part of the relocation package). Despite a quote which was £1800 cheaper, Cartus ignored him and went with their 'preferred' company - again no doubt because they get commission from them.
Your wife specialises in property in her area. The word to note is specialises, Cartus do not give a fig because they know that NATS will pick up all the costs, so where is the incentive for cartus to spend some time and do a proper job? Meanwhile, although this money is being wasted, we are fighting for the survival of the pension!
Vote No
I think what might happen is this -
If there is a 'NO' vote in the region of 60/40 (or less of a margin), then the pension changes will be pushed through regardless.
If there is a bigger percentage of people voting 'NO', then that may be enough to force management back to the table.
It will all be down to how management perceives the mood to be - and a big part of that will be the way the vote count turns out.