Royal Mail to deliver 219 million letters late this year

Royal Mail will deliver 219 million letters late this year, even after the postal service raised stamp prices.

The company has insisted its quality of service is improving, with more than 92pc of all letters arriving on or before their due delivery date this year so far.

But MPs have accused the company of obscuring the true scale of delays by grouping first-class and second-class post together.

In fact, less than 75pc of first-class mail has been delivered the next working day – well below targets of 93pc. That equates to 126 million first-class letters arriving later than their scheduled arrival date during the year.

Second-class post has performed better, with more than 90pc delivered on time, though this remains well behind target and still translates to around 93 million late letters. Overall, Royal Mail is on track to deliver 219 million letters late.

Despite the poor quality of service, Royal Mail has announced it will increase the price of a first-class stamp by 10p to £1.80 next month.

It marks the seventh price rise in four years and means the price of a first class stamp has almost doubled since 2022, when it cost just 95p. Second-class stamp prices, which are capped by regulator Ofcom, will increase from 87p to 91p.

Royal Mail, which is owned by Daniel Křetínský, a Czech billionaire, is under fierce scrutiny from politicians about its quality of service following widespread reports of late or missing letters.

MPs on the business and trade committee last month launched an investigation into the issue, raising concerns that the postal service was prioritising its lucrative parcels business instead of letters.

In its response, Royal Mail said it did not have specific data on when parcels were prioritised over letters.

It said its letter-sorting technology was designed to group letters together for delivery on a specific date but denied it would hold back mail if that meant it would miss its target delivery date.

However, MPs pointed out that Royal Mail had repeatedly fallen short of its delivery targets. Ofcom hit the company with a record £21m fine in October, taking its total penalties over the last three years to more than £36m.

Royal Mail is attempting to thrash out the details of reforms to its universal service obligation, which were approved by Ofcom last year.

This will allow the postal service to scrap second-class letter deliveries, while it will also water down its delivery targets to reflect a sharp decline in letter sending.

But the reforms have been delayed by a standoff with Royal Mail’s powerful postal union, which argues that trials that began more than a year ago are not working.

The two sides are now locked in intense negotiations overseen by ministers, which have been extended from its original four-week deadline. Royal Mail has said it will push ahead with its reforms if no agreement is reached by the end of the talks.

Royal Mail bosses are set to appear before MPs later this month alongside officials from the Communication Workers Union and Ofcom.

While Royal Mail acknowledged that the quality of service could be improved but insisted that delivery times had improved and that 5.8 billion letters arrived on time each year.

It added that almost half of all letters are now sent via a cheaper five-day service offered to bulk senders such as the NHS, banks and energy companies.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We recognise there is more to do to deliver a consistently high level of service everywhere.

“Attending the business and trade committee will give us the opportunity to discuss the work we are doing to transform Royal Mail and the urgent need to implement changes to the universal service to deliver the services our customers want and ensure we are financially sustainable for the long term.”

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