Privatised postal giant the Royal Mail is weighing up a new stamp price rise – as whistleblowers claimed rounds are being missed on a daily basis in a service that is stretched beyond capacity
Royal Mail risks angering millions of customers already fed-up with a go-slow service as another possible stamp price hike could be on the horizon.
The privatised postal giant is expected to confirm in the coming weeks if the price of a first class stamp will rise yet again in early April. While sources said no decision had been made, the company has a track record of jacking-up prices at this time of year.
Last April saw a first class stamp go up by another 5p to £1.70, having surged from 76p in 2020 – a 124% leap. A book of eight first class stamps now costs £13.60. Second class stamp prices are capped but have still jumped from 65p in 2020 to 87p last April.
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It came as Royal Mail whistleblowers claimed rounds are being missed on a daily basis and parcels being prioritised over letters as they are stretched beyond capacity. More than 20 postal workers from across the UK spoke to the BBC. All but one reported delays in their office, and 19 said parcels were still taking priority over all letters – something Royal Mail has previously denied.
“I understand there are delivery offices that clear (all the post) day in and day out, but they are few and far between, and certainly mine isn’t one of them”, one postman said. A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We want to reassure customers that the vast majority of mail is delivered as planned and understand how frustrating it is when post does not arrive as expected.
“Adverse weather, including storms Goretti, Ingrid and Chandra in January, alongside higher than usual sick absence, has caused some short-term disruption to certain routes. Where a delay affects a route, we work to resolve it as quickly as possible by putting in extra support and reviewing performance daily to restore deliveries as quickly as possible.”
Quarterly figures from the Royal Mail before the end of February are likely to show it missed delivery targets yet again. It comes after the company was hit with a new £21million fine last October for missing first and second class delivery targets in its last financial year. It was the third biggest fine regulator Ofcom had imposed on any company.
Royal Mail only delivered 77% of first class mail and 92.5% of second class on time in its 2024-25 financial year – well short its respective 93% and 98.5% targets. It marked the third year in a row that Royal Mail, now owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, was fined for not meeting its service requirements.
Royal Mail has now been cleared to deliver second class letters on just five days a fortnight. Ofcom has said the firm can axe Saturday second class deliveries and move to alternate weekdays – three days one week, and two days the next. The move, effective from last July, is part of changes to the Universal Service Obligation as letter numbers fall.
However, the company has yet to reach full agreement with the Communication Workers Union on the changes. Relations with the union had appeared to be improving. But Craig Anderson from the CWU told the BBC: “I’m not confident that the service is going to improve going forward, it certainly hasn’t since Christmas… Royal Mail is a company in crisis.”
Meanwhile, Royal Mail has warned over potential service delays across more than 100 UK postcodes as storms and workers being off sick cause disruption.
