Ofcom wants to introduce a new discount scheme, similar to social tariffs that are used to offer cheaper mobile and broadband deals for people claiming benefits
People claiming benefits would pay less for stamps under new plans being considered by Ofcom.
The regulator wants to introduce a new discount scheme, similar to social tariffs that are used to offer cheaper mobile and broadband deals for people claiming benefits.
The price of a first class stamp has risen from 85p to £1.70 in the last four years, and second class stamps have increased from 66p to 87p over the same period.
Ofcom launched a review today where it is asking for people to get in touch with their views by December 5, 2025. It plans on publishing a consultation in the first quarter of 2026. Royal Mail is in charge of setting stamp prices in the UK.
A spokesman for Royal Mail said: “We will fully engage with Ofcom on its review. Royal Mail carefully considers prices and seeks to keep them as low as possible while balancing the increasing costs associated with delivering the Universal Service.
“The delivery of mail involves a complex network of multiple modes of transport and around 80,000 posties to deliver a letter from the Scilly Isles to Shetland for just 87p.”
It comes after Royal Mail was fined £21million for missing its annual first and second class mail delivery targets. Royal Mail must deliver 93% of its first class and 98.5% of its second class mail on time.
But during the 2024/25 financial year it delivered 77% of first class mail and 92.5% of second class mail on time, Ofcom found. It is the third year in a row that the British delivery giant has been fined for not meeting its service requirements.
Ofcom has given the green light to Royal Mail to scrap second class letter deliveries on Saturdays and change the service to every other weekday, with the changes being rolled out in the coming months.
But under its universal service obligation, Royal Mail must keep Monday to Saturday deliveries for first-class post and maintain the target for second-class letters to arrive within three working days.
International Distribution Services (IDS) chief executive Martin Seidenberg said it was a “massive task ahead of us” that will be continuing well into 2026.
He said: “We will take the time to get this right. We owe it to our customers that we are not flipping back and forth.” He added the group had “always said it would take many months”.
Royal Mail reported underlying earnings, excluding voluntary redundancy costs, of £12million for the year to March 31. This compared with losses of £336million the previous year.
But, with redundancy costs included, Royal Mail still remained in the red with underlying operating losses of £8 million.
