{"id":470781,"date":"2026-03-12T03:35:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/470781\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T03:35:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:35:17","slug":"households-urged-to-act-now-as-stamps-see-eighth-price-rise-in-6-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/470781\/","title":{"rendered":"Households urged to act now as stamps see eighth price rise in 6 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Households have been urged to stock up on stamps ahead of another major price rise set to be introduced by the Royal Mail<\/a> from next month.<\/p>\n

The postal service said the price of a second-class stamp would go up by 4p to 91p and first-class stamps would increase by 10p to \u00a31.80 from April 7.<\/p>\n

This latest hike <\/a>means the price of a first-class stamp has now more than doubled over the past six years, increasing by 137 per cent through eight separate rises. Second-class stamps have seen six price increases in the same period.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the rise, Martin Lewis has advised<\/a> people who may need stamps to stock up now to avoid having to pay more later.<\/p>\n

The money expert said: \u201cFor years, every time stamps go up in price I’ve suggested people stock up and bulk-buy in advance, as provided the stamp doesn’t have a price on it and instead just says the postage class, it’s still valid after the rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been an effective tactic, as a first-class letter stamp is now \u00a31.70, soon rising to \u00a31.80 \u2013 in 2012 it was just 60p. So you may as well stock up now if you\u2019re going to need stamps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Martin<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Martin Lewis has advised people who may need stamps to stock up nowhtmare\u2019 (Stefan Rousseau\/PA) (PA Archive)<\/p>\n

The latest price rises coincide come as concerns grow over Royal Mail<\/a>\u2019s performance, after the postal service admitted last month it had once again failed to meet its delivery targets.<\/p>\n

Anne Pardoe, head of policy at Citizens Advice, said: \u201cMore than half-a-decade has gone by since the company met its delivery targets and people still face a gamble, with many uncertain if their important documents or letters like medical appointments will arrive on time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings only risk getting worse when cuts to delivery days and reduced performance targets come into full effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgainst this backdrop, Ofcom simply cannot wave through these increases any longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigher prices must come with higher standards \u2013 increases should be tied to Royal Mail\u2019s performance on the doorstep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Royal Mail has been called in to face a committee of MPs who have raised concerns about \u201cchaos\u201d in the postal service since Christmas and suggestions that some letters are being delivered in \u201cbatches\u201d.<\/p>\n

Royal Mail said the stamp rises reflected the continued increase in the cost of delivery as letter volumes fell and the number of addresses increased.<\/p>\n

Richard Travers, managing director of letters at Royal Mail, said: \u201cWe always consider price changes very carefully, balancing affordability with the rising cost of delivering mail.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn average, UK adults now spend just \u00a36.50 each year on stamps and there are 70% fewer letters sent than 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the meantime, the number of addresses we deliver to has increased by four million to 32 million addresses across the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Royal<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Royal Mail has been called in to face a committee of MPs who have raised concerns about \u2018chaos\u2019 in the postal service since Christmas (James Manning\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

The last time Royal Mail met its annual target for delivering first-class post<\/a> on time was in 2019\/20.<\/p>\n

The firm \u2013 whose owner International Distribution Services (IDS) was bought last June for \u00a33.6 billion by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky\u2019s EP Group \u2013 repeated its call to \u201curgently move forward\u201d with reforms to the service.<\/p>\n

Ofcom last year cleared Royal Mail to scrap second-class letter deliveries on Saturdays and change the service to every other weekday.<\/p>\n

Royal Mail has since introduced the changes as a pilot across 35 delivery offices.<\/p>\n

But it has been in intensive talks with the Communications Workers Union (CWU) after failing to agree on how to roll out the universal service changes across its 1,200-strong network.<\/p>\n

Month-long talks ended on March 2 without agreement and have been extended for two weeks to allow the sides to reach agreement.<\/p>\n

Mr Travers said: \u201cTo protect the service for the future we need to urgently move forward with implementing universal service reform to support a more modern, more reliable and more sustainable service for our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Royal Mail argued that despite the price rises, UK stamps still cost less than the European average of \u00a31.56 for a second-class stamp and \u00a31.93 for first class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-470781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}