Royal Mail stamp prices go up today

The good news, from our point of view anyway, is that the price of second-class stamps remains the same, for now.

Today’s increase in the price of first-class stamps is the second price rise in a year, with a first-class stamp in September 2023 costing £1.10, today it has gone up to £1.65 following a shift to £1.35 in April of this year.

Of course, most people these days tend to use second-class stamps if possible as they understand that adding a first-class stamp does nothing to improve its speed of delivery to certain parts of the country.

As an example, sitting today in the North West of England, we’ve had no post through the door since last Thursday, meaning three days without any mail deliveries. Given that we typically get over a dozen pieces of mail every week, it’s a rock solid certainty that somewhere at our local sorting office there’s a small pile of letters waiting to be delivered.

Like many other households, we understand the issue. Royal Mail have dropped or consolidated rounds (known in the trade as ‘dropping a frame’) which means that often, our pastiche cannot physically complete the whole round in a day. When post does arrive, which is likely to be tomorrow, it’s almost guaranteed that the postmarked items will have Friday’s date on them, irrespective of whether they were sent first or second class.

A recent online commentator suggested that someone take Royal Mail to court under the trades description act, as their ability to deliver a letter the following day now seems in question for anyone outside of the major conurbations.

Either way, the price rises today for first-class stamps to £1.65 for a standard letter and first-class large letter jumps up 50p to £2.60. When the second-class equivalents are so much cheaper it makes you wonder if first-class post in the U.K. is sustainable moving forward.