The price of a Royal first class stamp is to rise by 30p and it is the fifth increase in less than three years. The Royal Mail is blaming the move on urgent financial challenges and decreasing letter volumes.
The stamp price will go up to 1.65 Pounds as of 7 October, while the second class stamp price stays at 85 p. There was a 10p increase in both first and second class stamp prices in April, which took them to 1.35 Pounds and 85p respectively.
Next month’s rise means Royal Mail first-class stamps will have almost doubled in price since March 2022. At that point, the first-class stamp cost was 85p.
Royal Mail stated that it had sought to keep the price increase as less as possible in the face of declining letter volumes, inflationary pressures, and the charges associated with the maintenance of the universal service obligation (USO).
Under this, the company has called for the service terms, and it is legally obliged to deliver letters six days each week. Letters are delivered Monday to Saturday, and parcels are delivered Monday to Friday.
Royal Mail stated that the service needed “urgent reform” to display changes in how people communicate if it was to continue offering a one-price-goes-anywhere service.
The Chief commercial officer at Royal Mail, Nick Landon said, “We always consider price increases very carefully.
However, when letter volumes have declined by two-thirds since their peak, the cost of delivering each letter inevitably increases”.
According to Royal Mail, they are proud to deliver the Universal Service but the financial cost plays a significant role.
The announcement comes a day after the UK communications regulator, Ofcom stated that it would assess whether Royal Mail could be allowed to offcut the second class letter deliveries on Saturdays.
The company is in the process of being bought by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. Royal Mail stated that the Universal Service needs urgent reform.
It has asked the industry regulator to allow it to reduce second-class letter deliveries to two to three days a week. It has also suggested that whether the second class service can be done on every alternate weekday, it may help to cut the cost of Royal Mail.
However, on Friday, Royal Mail stated that it still has no certainty on regulatory reform.
The Royal Mail Chief commercial officer, Nick Landon has stated that “The Universal Service must adapt to reflect changing customer preferences and increasing costs so that we can protect the one-price-goes-anywhere service, now and in the future”.