Royal Mail announces stamp prices will rise AGAIN for sixth time in three years

Stamp prices are increasing again due to the ‘increasing cost of delivery mail’

Stamp prices are set to go up again for the sixth time in three years. The cost of a first class stamp will now be more than double what it was in 2020 – increasing from 76p to £1.70

The changes will come into effect on April 7 and will see the price of a first class stamp rise by 5p, and the cost of a second-class stamp go up by 2p to 87p each.

The spiralling prices are because of the ‘increasing cost of delivering mail’, according to Royal Mail. Prices had already risen five times in the past three years before the latest hike

Last year, the company was fined £10.5 million by regulators for not meeting its delivery targets. The last time it met its annual target for delivering first-class post on time was in 2019-2020.

Tom MacInnes, director of policy at Citizens Advice, called the price increase ‘yet another blow to consumers’.

He said: “While stamp prices continue to climb, millions of people face post delays every year.

“Royal Mail hasn’t met an annual delivery target for five years, but consumers will pay 124% more for a first-class stamp, and 34% more for a second-class stamp, than they did in 2020.”

Royal Mail said letter volumes have fallen from 20 billion a year in 2005 to 6.7 billion in 2024.

It added that over the same period, the number of addresses has risen. This means the cost of each delivery ‘continues to rise’, according to chief commercial officer Nick Landon.

He said that Royal Mail’s one-price-goes-anywhere universal service obligation – which requires them to deliver letters six days a week and parcels five days a week – needs ‘urgent reform’, arguing it does not meet modern customers’ needs.

The obligation is currently under review and regulator Ofcom is consulting on plans to remove second-class deliveries on Saturdays – reducing them to just two or three days a week.

Amanda Fergusson, chief executive of the Greeting Card Association said: “Here we go again. Yet again Royal Mail is asking people to keep paying more, for less, demonstrating the urgency behind our call for MPs to investigate Ofcom and Royal Mail’s plan to weaken the service.

“Our members – and their customers – know imminent plans to slash second-class services will leave them reliant on a first-class stamp at runaway prices.

“It’s time for MPs to act – they must make sure Royal Mail isn’t given carte blanche to make the postal service less reliable and unaffordable.”

Royal Mail was privatised in 2013 and purchased by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky in 2024 from current owner International Distribution Services.

The purchase was agreed in 2024 but has not been closed yet, with the deal being delayed earlier this week until the second quarter amid a political crisis in Romania, according to a statement earlier this week.