A book of first-class stamps will cost £10 after Royal Mail raises its prices for the second time in six months.
Royal Mail announced this week that it would increase the price of a first-class stamp from £1.10 to £1.25 from October 2, despite it failing to hit its delivery targets.
Currently, a book of eight stamps costs £8.80, but from next month, it will cost £10.
The delivery company said first-class stamps were rising in price as it faced “increasing cost pressures” and a “challenging economic environment”.
Other stamp prices will also rise but second-class stamps will remain at the same price at 75p.
It’s the second time that prices of standard-letter size first-class stamps have been hiked this year, after they last went up in April.
The increase means that the price of a first-class stamp is now 30p, or 31 percent, higher than it was in March.
For large letters, first-class stamps will increase by 35p to £1.95 while second-class prices will rise by 40p to £1.55.
First-class stamps increased by 15p from 95p to £1.10 in March. Meanwhile, second-class stamps rose from 68p to 75p.
The cost of Royal Mail’s ‘Signed For’ and ‘Special Delivery Guaranteed’ services will also increase from October 2, as will its Parcelforce ‘Worldwide Next Day’ and ‘Two Day UK’ services.
The company also said prices had to rise due to the lack of reform of the universal service obligation (USO) had contributed to the need to hike prices.
The USO forces Royal Mail to deliver letters six days a week to all 32 million UK addresses for the same price.
Nick Landon, the firm’s chief commercial officer, said: “We understand the economic challenges that many of our customers are currently facing and have considered the price changes very carefully in light of the significant decline in letter volumes.
“Letter volumes have reduced dramatically over recent years, down more than 60 percent from their peak in 2004/5 and 30 percent since the pandemic.
“It is vital that the universal service adapts to reflect this new reality.”
The price hikes mean people now have until Sunday, October 1 to “inflation-proof” their postage costs by securing stamps at their current prices, to beat the coming hikes plus any more in future.
If people buy them at today’s prices, they’ll still be able to use them on or after October 2.
