Citizens Advice reacts to Royal Mail's 1st class stamp price increase

Responding to the announcement that Royal Mail will increase the price of 1st class stamps to £1.65 from October, Tom MacInnes, Director of Policy at Citizens Advice, said:

“This price stamp increase couldn’t be coming at a worse time for consumers, who will now be paying more than double the price of a 1st class stamp compared to five years ago.

“Royal Mail is choosing to hike prices far beyond the rate of inflation at a time when millions continue to miss important letters, as a result of post delays. People shouldn’t be having to fork out more while experiencing such poor service.

“Ofcom should be holding Royal Mail to account, but it’s letting the company get away with setting rocketing prices in the wake of  half a decade of missed delivery targets. We need the regulator to make sure reforms of our postal service put the needs of consumers first - not Royal Mail’s bottom line.”

 -ends-

Additional information:

  • The cost of a 1st class stamp in 2019 was 70p. From October 7, consumers face having to pay £1.65 for a 1st class stamp. 

  • 7.2 million people experienced a delay in sending or receiving letters this spring with 1.4 million people facing serious consequences as a result. This includes missing health appointments, legal documents, fines and benefit decisions.

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Notes to editors:

  1. Citizens Advice is made up of the national charity Citizens Advice; the network of independent local Citizens Advice charities across England and Wales; the Citizens Advice consumer service; and the Witness Service.

  2. Our network of charities offers impartial advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free. 

  3. Citizens Advice helped 2.66 million people face to face, over the phone, by email and webchat in 2022-23. And we had 60.6 million visits to our website. For full service statistics see our monthly publication Advice trends.

  4. Citizens Advice service staff are supported by more than 16,000 trained volunteers, working at over 1,600 service outlets across England and Wales.

  5. You can get consumer advice from the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133 or 0808 223 1144 for Welsh language speakers.