Royal Mail is hiking the price of first and second class stamps again with new prices coming within weeks.
The postal service has confirmed that the price of a first-class stamp will increase by 5p, to £1.70. Alongside this, the cost of a second-class stamp will rise by 2p, moving from 85p to 87p. Royal Mail said the new prices will be introduced from next month on April 7. Royal Mail says the price hike came after it carefully considered “balancing affordability with the increasing cost of delivering mail”.
Nick Landon, chief commercial officer at Royal Mail said: “We always consider price changes very carefully but the cost of delivering mail continues to increase. A complex and extensive network of trucks, planes and 85,000 posties is needed to ensure we can deliver across the country for just 87p.”
Alongside the stamp hike, the postal service will also be raising the price of deliveries with first-class large letters up to 100g, increasing from £2.60 to £3.15. The delivery price for small parcels up to 2kg will also be rising from £4.79 to £4.99 for first class and from £3.75 to £3.90 for second class. The cost of signed for deliveries is also going up with first class signed-for stamps rising by 25p, going from £3.35 to £3.60 and second class signed for delivery rising by 22p, going from £2.55 to £2.77.
Citizens Advice has described the change as “yet another blow to consumers” and said the price hikes to second-class stamps was “unjust”.
Tom MacInnes, the charity’s director of policy, at Citizens Advice said: “It’s unjust for Royal Mail to raise the price of a second-class stamp, while the regulator Ofcom looks at reducing second-class deliveries to alternate weekdays. As first-class stamps are becoming unaffordable, people could be forced by price pressures into choosing a slower service.”
Since 2022, the postal service has hiked the price of first-class stamps five times, from just 85p three years ago. Royal Mail says it needs to raise prices because it delivers fewer letters. In 2004-05, Royal Mail delivered 20billion letters a year, but this dropped to 6.6billion last year.
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