Royal Mail to increase first class stamp by 5p in April

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Updated: 11:51 EST, 17 December 2010

Royal Mail announced on Friday that it will increase the price of a first class stamp by 5p to 46p next April.

A second class stamp will also rise by 4p, taking its cost to 36p, the company said.

The hikes mean that the cost of posting a large letter will increase by 9p to 75 for first class mail and by 7p to 58p for second class.

Cost: Royal Mail loses 6.4p on average on every stamped item it handles.

The move will add around 7p to the average household’s weekly spend of about 60p on postage.

Announcing the rises, Royal Mail said stamp prices for letters weighing up to 100g would still be among the cheapest in Europe.

The postal group said that in the last year it lost an average of 6.4p on every stamped item it delivered.

‘We have thought carefully about these increases as we are conscious of the difficult economic circumstances our customers are facing. No-one likes to pay more and we regret having had to take these tough decisions on pricing,’ said chief executive Moya Greene.

She added: ‘After these increases, we will continue providing value-for-money as our prices will still be among the lowest in Europe.’

The price of sending a standard parcel up to 2kg in weight will not change but will increase by 8 per cent for heavier items.