Royal Mail will raise the prices for the First and Second Class stamps for standard letters from 6April 2010 reflecting the continuing financial losses of about £250 million in 2008-09 made by
Royal Mail in collecting and delivering stamped mail.The UK national postal operator said that the price of First and Second Class stamps forstandard letters weighing up to 100g will rise by 2p to 41p and 32p respectively.
The prices for ordinary meter and account mail, largely sent by small businesses, will notincrease and will remain at 36p and 25p respectively for standard letters weighing up to 100g. Inaddition, the price for Royal Mail Special Delivery Next Day will increase by 10p to £5.05 for mailup to 100g. The service guarantees delivery of urgent or valuable shipments before 1.00pm the nextworking day to 99% of the UK.
The increases to stamp prices will affect only around 12% of the mail sent in the UK and willadd around 3p per week to the average UK household’s weekly 50p expenditure on postage, Royal Mailadded. The changes are in line with the pricing regime set by the UK postal regulator, Postcomm.
Alex Smith, Royal Mail’s Commercial and Strategy Director, said: “Stamp prices remainaffordable and represent excellent value for money – Royal Mail continues to offer consumers a moreextensive, to-the-door, six-days-a-week service than many European countries and does so at a lowerprice than most other operators.”
“Small businesses who depend on Royal Mail’s services to fulfil their customers’ orders andto grow their businesses will be helped by our decision to hold prices for ordinary meter andaccount mail at today’s levels,” Smith added.
After the new prices take effect, Royal Mail’s stamp prices will still be among the lowest inEurope as the average cost of sending a 100g item by First Class post or equivalent in Europe isnow 82p, twice the new UK price, the postal operator said in a statement.
