Phil Hill: Why have Royal Mail stamp prices soared recently?

That’s the eighth price hike in the last six years, during which time Royal Mail has repeatedly missed its delivery targets.

So, while keeping in touch by post has earned the moniker ‘snail mail’, the company’s dash to keep upping its prices is more cheetah pace – there’s another word that sounds the same as that wild cat.

The media has been awash with horror stories of letters held in sorting offices for days and in some cases, weeks.

You may well ask how such an inefficient service can justify hiking costs.

You might think a price rise of around working out at an average 1p a year since adhesive stamps were first issued in this country is reasonable.

But perhaps you should probe a little deeper.

The Penny Black (1d), introduced in 1840, was the first time anyone had to pay to have their letters delivered by the Royal Mail, which had been established in Henry VIII’s time.

Prior to reforms brought in under Queen Victoria, mail was held by the service until the recipient paid for its delivery.

The new system led to rapid deliveries up to 12 times a day, with letters mostly answered either the same day or very soon after.

So, how did we get to today’s shoddy, expensive service?

The cost of stamps remained pretty stable for over a century – increasing from 1d to 3p at the time of the decimalisation of our currency in 1971.

(There were 240 pennies to the pound, meaning 3p was approximately equivalent to 7d.)

In the last few years, there has been an inexorable rise in the cost of stamps, with the first-class cost passing through the £1 barrier in 2023.

While the increase from 1840 to 1971 was sevenfold, if you take the overall increase from 1840 to the current year, it works out as a 432-fold rise, most of which is relatively recent.

It’s a given that there is far more competition these days and that Royal Mail, unlike its competitors, is legally obliged to deliver to any address in the UK.

People these days write far fewer letters due to the instant nature of free-to-send emails.

But, with the amount it costs to send letters these days, those who still rely on hand-delivered letters deserve a far better service.