According to Royal Mail, this price change is due to the continued hike in the cost of delivery as letter volumes fall and the number of addresses increases.

Richard Travers, the managing director of letters at Royal Mail, said: “We always consider price changes very carefully, balancing affordability with the rising cost of delivering mail.

“On average, UK adults now spend just £6.50 each year on stamps, and there are 70 per cent fewer letters sent than 20 years ago. In the meantime, the number of addresses we deliver to has increased by four million to 32 million addresses across the UK.

“As the UK’s designated postal Universal Service Provider, we’re proud to be the only company to deliver a one-price-goes-anywhere service, six days a week, from St Ives to Stirling, but there is a high cost associated with doing this.”

Last year, Royal Mail was fined £21million by Ofcom for failing to meet its first and second class delivery targets for the 2024/25 financial year.

This represented the third time the firm was found to be in breach of its regulatory obligations, after a £5.6mlllion fine in November 2023 and a £10.5million charge in December 2024.

| PA

| GETTY

Ian Strawhorne, the director of Enforcement at Ofcom, said: “Millions of important letters are arriving late, and people aren’t getting what they pay for when they buy a stamp. These persistent failures are unacceptable, and customers expect and deserve better.

“Royal Mail must rebuild consumers’ confidence as a matter of urgency. And that means making actual significant improvements, not more empty promises.

“We’ve told the company to publicly set out how it’s going to deliver this change, and we expect to start seeing meaningful progress soon. If this doesn’t happen, fines are likely to continue.”