01 March 2024 , 13:54
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Royal Mail is to increase the price of stamps again next month.
It marks the fourth increase in two years for the cost of a first class stamp. The price of a first class stamp will rise by 10p from £1.25 to £1.35, while second class stamps will also go up by 10p, from 75p to 85p. First class stamps were hiked from 85p to 95p in April 2022, then from 95p to £1.10 in April 2023. They then went up again by another 15p to £1.25 in October last year.
Royal Mail said the latest price increase will come into force on April 2. Nick Landon, chief commercial officer at Royal Mail, said: “We always consider price changes very carefully but we face a situation where letter volumes have reduced dramatically over recent years while costs have increased.
“It is no longer sustainable to maintain a network built for 20 billion letters when we are now only delivering seven billion. As a result of letter volume decline, our posties now have to walk more than three times as far to deliver the same number of letters as before, increasing the delivery costs per letter.”
If you send a lot of stamps, you can beat the increase by stocking up before the increase comes into effect on April 2. It comes after Ofcom suggested Royal Mail couldreduce the number of daysit delivers letters to UK households, as part of measures to cut its costs. Royal Mail currently has to deliver letters six days a week, Monday to Saturday, but Ofcom said it could be allowed to go down to as little as three days a week.
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Royal Mail argues that the volume of letters being sent has halved from 14 billion in 2011 to roughly seven billion in the 2022/23 financial year. But the number of parcels being delivered rose to a record 3.6 billion in the 2022/23 financial year. Royal Mail recorded a £419million loss in its previous financial year, while it was also fined £5.6million last year for failing to meet its delivery targets.