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The price of Royal Mail stamps is going up again from next month – so it could be a good idea to stock up now if you regularly send post.
First class stamps will rise by 10p to £1.80 from April 7. The price of a first class stamp was just 64p in 2016 – meaning it will have increased by 181% in the past ten years.
Second class stamps are going up by 4p to 91p. You can save money by bulk-buying stamps now ahead of the price rise. This works if the stamp doesn’t have a price on it and just says the postage class.
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Royal Mail said the increases are down to the rising cost of delivery as letter volumes fell and the number of addresses increased.
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But it comes as the postal service continues to fail to meet its delivery targets. The last time Royal Mail met its annual target for delivering first-class post on time was in 2019-20.
Royal Mail was bought last June for £3.6billion by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky’s EP Group.
Mr Kretinsky last week apologised for letters not arriving on time, but pushed back at criticism of the postal service. and said reforms need to be put in place.
When asked by the chairman of the Business and Trade Committee to apologise for a declining service, Mr Kretinsky said: “I’m deeply sorry for any letter that arrives late.
“I’m deeply sorry if we are not delivering the letters on our promise, but I can’t adhere to your sentence that quality of service is declining as the numbers just don’t evidence that at all.”
Royal Mail was last year given the green light by Ofcom to no longer deliver second class post on Saturdays. Royal Mail will also only deliver second class post on alternate weekdays, instead of six days a week, under the shake-up.
This is being piloted in around 35 delivery offices. But despite the reduced service, Royal Mail will still have a target for second class letters to arrive within three working days.
Royal Mail managing director of letters, Richard Travers, said of the price increase: “We always consider price changes very carefully, balancing affordability with the rising cost of delivering mail.
“On average, UK adults now spend just £6.50 each year on stamps and there are 70% fewer letters sent than 20 years ago,” he added.
“In the meantime, the number of addresses we deliver to has increased by four million to 32 million addresses across the UK.”
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