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From Monday, 7 October, Royal Mail will increase the price of first-class stamps by 22 per cent, bringing the cost from £1.35 to £1.65. Second-class stamps will remain at 85p.
As the festive season fast approaches, Brits might feel the pinch when sending Christmas cards, with many considering alternative methods of sending yuletide wishes.
Royal Mail’s rising costs and declining mail volumes
Royal Mail attributes the price hike to rising operational costs and reduced mail volumes. The shift towards digital communication has left postal services struggling to maintain profitability, leading to these price increases.
As reported by The Guardian, Nick Landon, the Royal Mail Chief Commercial Officer, said: “We always consider price increases very carefully. However, when letter volumes have declined by two-thirds since their peak, the cost of delivering each letter inevitably increases. The universal service must adapt to reflect changing customer preferences and increasing costs so that we can protect the one-price-goes-anywhere service, now and in the future.”
Sending Christmas cards during a cost-of-living crisis
For Brits already facing a challenging cost-of-living crisis, the additional cost of sending traditional Christmas cards could deter many. Just a 30p increase on first-class stamps means an extra say £6 on 20 Christmas cards in the post.
The Post Office scandal
This price increase comes in the wake of the The Post Office scandal, a major controversy that has been a source of public outrage. The scandal involved more than 900 sub-postmasters charged for stealing, after receiving false information from the Horizon computer system used by the The Post Office. It has been described as the UK’s most widespread miscarriage of justice. The Post Office prosecuted 700 people between 1999 and 2015. (Royal Mail and The Post Office were of the same entity until 2012.)
Other authorities, notably the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), filed an additional 283 cases. Many sub-postmasters were imprisoned for false accounting and theft, and many suffered financial devastation.
One of our Euro Weekly News readers expressed disbelief, stating: “Having listened to the Radio 4 daily podcast on the Great PO scandal I was horrified and still am as to why this was allowed to happen! Why did it have to take an ITV production to wake up the powers that be!??? Justice will never bring back people’s lives, or replace what they lost morally or materialistically! Shameful!”
In response to the scandal, the television drama Mr. Bates v The Post Office recently won not one but three awards at the National Television Awards (NTAs), further bringing attention to the issue. Upon accepting one of the awards, Jo Hamilton, a former sub-postmaster, said, “I went to Westminster a couple of weeks back and saw the new minister and trust me, nothing has changed,” she said.
“Almost all of these people behind me haven’t been paid yet. And out of the group of 555, more than 300 haven’t been paid yet.”
The victory at the NTAs has reignited public interest in the scandal, prompting further scrutiny of The Post Office’s handling of the issue.
The timing of the price rise, alongside the lingering effects of the Post Office scandal, leaves many questioning Royal Mail’s priorities.
Alternative to posting Christmas cards
As Christmas approaches, many people are expected to turn to digital solutions like e-cards to avoid the rising costs of first-class stamps. With growing financial pressures, e-cards are becoming more appealing for those looking to stay connected without breaking the bank. They are also a greener approach.
