Not content with the cost of a first class letter being almost prohibitive at £1.65, it will be increasing the cost to £1.70. Fortunately, second class postage, as it is regulated, is only rising 2p from 85p to 87p.

The latest rises will simply exacerbate the issue of declining mail volumes, as the more the price is raised, the less people use the post. Online services are now starting to proliferate and most major institutions now nudge their customers to dealing with them online, meaning no more paper bills in the post.

The rises, whilst expected, come as another blow to those who regularly use the postal system as currently second class post can take between two and ten days to be delivered, even when the recipient is a few miles away. First class post is often delayed and Royal Mail are regularly being fined for missing their standard delivery targets.

To deal with this, Royal Mail are looking to vary the conditions of the Universal Service Obligation and drop at least one of their deliveries. Whilst this is meeting with residence amongst consumer groups, it would simply be an official recognition of what has already become ‘de facto’ standard practice. Many homes simply don’t receive mail on certain days of the week and some, just on one or two specific days.

At 87p, second class post still represents good value, given the cost of running a nation-wide postal system, but further rises will make the service even less appealing and the end result could well be the same as Denmark, who will officially cease all mail services in the country at the end of 2025.

So, price rise or no, use it or lose it is the message for all fans of second class stamps!

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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.

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Standard letters will still be able to be sent second class at 75p, but large letters will be increasing from £1.15 to £1.55, a whopping 34.5% rise. Funny, that wasn’t highlighted anywhere in the press release.

We have all seemingly become so inured to the inevitable price rises in everything we buy that have forgotten that Royal Mail normally only raises their prices once a year, yet this is the second one in six months. In doing so, they have effectively admitted that they don’t want people to use the first-class service, by pricing it so far apart from the second-class service. No wonder, as the current first-class service is nothing of the sort and in most cases, indistinguishable from the second-class service. When there is no guarantee of next-day delivery, why would you pay almost twice to price for the service?

Anywhere you look online there are stories from individuals who have missed hospital appointments, received late birthday cards, and raised disputes with online sellers for non-delivery, all because Royal Mail cannot provide the next-day delivery service promised by the first-class service. Throughout all of this, they simply point to dropping mail volumes, increased costs, and the onerous restrictions of the Universal Service Obligation. Fine, but where are the solutions?

The reality is that the UK postal system is in disarray and raising stamp prices in nothing short of rearranging the deckchairs whilst the boat sinks. As Royal Mail is still effectively hamstrung by Government obligations, whilst being a privately owned business, the recipe for disaster is already in place. How long before the entire system for delivering mail reaches a crisis point and someone actually does something to sort this?

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The change is part of the annual price rise which Royal Mail applies to its service offerings in the UK and is placed alongside the rise of a first call stamp from 67p to 70p.

Despite the rise, the cost of mail in the UK still lags behind that charged in other parts of the world. Second class postage particularly, is still good value when compared to countries like Australia and Germany.

There are also corresponding rises in stamp prices across the boards and the following is a table of the current standard rates for postage in the UK.

Royal Mail 1st Class and 2nd Class Stamp Prices 2019

Includes compensation up to £20

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11.7bn letters were sent 2016-2017, a 5% decrease from the previous year, which is a larger decrease than the 4% decrease of previous years. This has caused a decrease in profit for Royal Mail of 221 thousand, another potential factor for the increase in stamp prices. However, it must be considered whether the increase in cost to the user is causing the decline in postage. Whilst price increases can be used to cover the loss of less customers, Royal Mail must identify the point at which consumers will refuse their service due to too high prices.

Another factor in the decline is the rise of the internet age. It has never been easier to send a message instantly across the world which could take an unknown amount of time by snail mail. Perhaps the future of post will lie only with parcels, with letters being mainly composed of legal documents and other such important paperwork of which a physical copy is needed. However, many companies now employ metered mail such as franking as a way to cut costs.

It is also important to consider the demographic of postal and internet users; typically, younger people prefer email and older people are more used to letters. As our population becomes an aging one, could we see a reversal, and thus an increase in postal usage? Also note that people are more trusting towards companies they can pinpoint, a reason why every company has to list its address.

Will the postal service go the way of the high street? Nowadays there are complaints on the lack of physical shop, a product of our love of internet shopping. A similar effect could occur with our treasured postal service; this opening could open the way for private companies to expand into the market.

Stamps bought before the change will still be useable without the need for extra stamps to increase their value.

1st class stamps have also risen in price by 2p. to 67p. These prices should remain stable until March 2019.

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