Postage Value of Older Stamps including Post and Go - October 2025 version.

This post brings previous tables up to date with the postage rates effective from 6 October 2025.

The tables are included primarily to explain the stamps used on cover, because they show that, for example, a stamp originally issued as a 30p Europe 20g stamp would later be valid for 100g and with a value of £1 in 2015 and £2.20 in 2023!

Remember that the International Rate stamps were all valid at the rates shown for inland postage, just as the 2nd, 1st, Large, Signed For, and Special Delivery stamps were all valid for inland services in addition to those shown and on international mail.

Now, of course, the old Machin and Country definitives without barcodes are no longer valid but the Post and Go stamps are as are the commemorative stamps, so the tables are still relevant for new use as well as for for Postal History purposes.

The E stamp was issued from January 1999-2004, and paid the Europe 20g rate.  This was 30p when issued and the cost but also the franking value increased periodically:

October 1999 (34p), April 2000 (36p), July 2001 (37p), May 2003 (38p), April 2004 (40p), April 2005 (42p), April 2006 (44p), April 2007 (48p).

Airmail Rates Table

	Europe 20g / E‡	World 10g	World 20g	World 40g
April 2009	56p	62p	90p	-
April 2010	70p	67p	97p	£1.46
April 2011	68p	76p	£1.10	£1.65
April 2012	87p		£1.28	£1.90
April 2013	88p		£1.28	£1.88
	E20/ W10	Europe 60g	World 20g	World 60g
April 2014	97p	£1.47	£1.28	£2.15
	E20/ W10	Europe 100g	World 20g	World 100g
April 2015	£1	£1.52	£1.33	£2.25
April 2016	£1.05	£1.52	£1.33	£2.25
April 2017	£1.17	£1.57	£1.40	£2.27
April 2018	£1.25	£1.55	£1.45	£2.25
April 2019	£1.35	£1.60	£1.55	£2.30
April 2020	£1.42	£1.68	£1.63	£2.42

	E20/ W10	Europe 100g	World 20g	World 100g	Europe Large 100g	World Large 100g
Sept 2020	£1.45	£1.70*	£1.70*	§	no NVI	no NVI
1 Jan 2021	£1.70	£1.70	£1.70	£2.55	£3.25	£4.20
4 Apr 2022	£1.85	£1.85	£1.85	£2.55	£3.25	£4.20
3 Apr 2023	£2.20				£3.25	£4.20
2 Apr 2024	£2.50				£3.25	£4.20
7 Oct 2024	£2.80				£3.25	£4.20
7 Apr 2025	£3.20				£3.50	£4.30
6 Oct 2025	£3.40				£3.50	£4.30

All definitive and country NVI stamps without barcodes were invalidated on 31 July 2023;
Christmas and Commemorative stamps remain valid.

'E'- denominated stamp - still valid at a value of £3.40

 

Europe 20g/Worldwide 10g Post and Go stamp now valid worldwide for 100 g.

* With effect from 1 September 2020 a combined Euro 100g/World 20g Post & Go stamp was issued, priced at £1.70.
§ On the same date the World 100g stamp was replaced by two stamps: World 100g Zone 1-3 is sold for £2.50, and World 100g Zone 2 is £2.55.
 
On 1 January 2021 the pricing for all world zones was standardised, although that for large letters over 100g varied.   The Post and Go range was then consolidated to include airmail Large Letter stamps. 

Inland premium services

Note that some of the rates were in effect before the stamps were issued, and some new stamps were issued at old rates before tariff increases.

Stamps Issued ±    or Rates Effective	1st Signed For 100g	1st Large Signed For 100g	100g Special Delivery	500g Special Delivery
17 November 2009 ±	£1.14	£1.36	-	-
6 April 2010	£1.15	£1.40	-	-
26 October 2010 ±			£5.05	£5.50
20 April 2011	£1.23	£1.52	£5.45	£5.90
30 April 2012	£1.55	£1.85	£5.90	£6.35
2 April 2013 §	£1.70	£2.00	£6.22	£6.95
31 March 2014	£1.72	£2.03	£6.40	£7.15
30 March 2015	£1.73	£2.05	£6.45	£7.25
29 March 2016	£1.74	£2.06
27 March 2017	£1.75	£2.08
26 March 2018	£1.77	£2.11	£6.50	£7.30
25 March 2019	£1.90	£2.26	£6.60	£7.40
23 March 2020	£2.06	£2.45	£6.70	£7.50
1 January 2021	£2.25	£2.69	£6.85	£7.65
4 April 2022	£2.35	£2.85
3 April 2023	£2.60	£3.10

Special Delivery and Signed For stamps were invalidated on 31 July 2023.

 § Royal Mail Signed For stamps were issued 27 March 2013, replacing Recorded Signed For, but were sold at old rates until 2 April. 

 

** Compensation for Signed For was reduced from £50 to £20 on this date, and compensation for Special Delivery was increased from £50 to £750.

  

Inland basic letter rates

Comprehensive tables of postage rates have been published by the Great Britain Philatelic Society and are freely available.  These and the rest of a hugely comprehensive website have been put together using members' subscriptions, so if you agree it is worth paying to join.

 

 

Please let me know by email if you spot any errors or omissions in this blog post.  

(Now edited to remove details of values of some NVIs in 2024.)

 

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All stamps are - or were - all valid for all services, inland and international.

A recent comment on the previous post asserted that it was not possible to use 2 x 1st class (£1.70) stamps to pay the international postcard or letter rate as the non-denominated (NVI) stamps were only to be used for the service mentioned.

This is totally incorrect as the following examples will demonstrate.  Of course many of these are old-style Machins but the same applies now to stamps and Post and Go stamps.

International Mail

£1.57, 5p and 1st class paying correct rate to Australia

World 20g, World 60g, Europe 20g and Machins airmail to Australia

Denominqted and 2 x 1st class to France

 

Postage on this expensive package to the USA includes a 1st class stamp

From a reader in Canada for the postmarks posts, the postage here is made of 4 recent 1st class stamps, an old 2nd class plus 50p

 

Likewise this one does precisely what was suggested in the other post, using very old 2 x 1st class stamps to (over-)pay the current £3.20 rate

Recent packet to Belarus used 1st class Large datamatrix Machin and denominated stamps

   

I don't have examples of  airmail stamps used inland, nor special delivery used on medium parcels sent by ordinary mail, but they do exist.  They are a way to get these higher value stamps fine used for collections.

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Parcel and tracked prices to increase again from October 2025.

Parent company International Distribution Services (IDS) announcing a return to profit for Royal Mail for the year ending 31 March 2025,  and maybe as a result of this there are no changes to basic letter prices for the second half of this year.

Royal Mail significantly improved its financial and operational performance, returning to an adjusted operating profit (excluding voluntary redundancy costs) of £12 million for the first time in three years, following significant losses in 2022-23 and 2023-24. This is in line with guidance and was achieved despite an increasingly competitive and challenging trading environment.

Not included in the announcement, nor anywhere else in the IDS Media Centre pages, but included on the Royal Mail website is a new 'Our Prices' leaflet (pdf) effective from 6 October 2025.  

No change to inland letter prices

The headline news for most of us is that basic Letter and Large Letter prices remain unchanged for both 2nd and 1st class.  Prices for Small Parcels show very modest increases of 10p and 9p for 1st and 2nd class, whilst Medium Parcels rise by 4% or under.  (New prices in bold, unchanged in italics.)

	1st		2nd
Letter	1.70	1.70	0.87	0.87
Large Letter – 100g	3.15	3.15	1.55	1.55
- 250g	3.60	3.60	2.00	2.00
- 500g	3.60	3.60	2.40	2.40
- 750g	3.60	3.60	2.70	2.70
Small Parcel 2kg	5.09	4.99	3.99*	3.90
Medium Parcel 2kg	7.45	6.99	6.49	6.29
- 10kg	9.35	8.99	8.19	7.89
- 20kg	14.25	13.69	12.25	11.89

Signed For prices for Letters and Large Letters remain similarly unchanged whilst parcels show small rises.  (* Thanks to everybody who pointed out the error; the fact that it wasn't in italics showed that there was a change, I just didn't finish editing it.)

Tracked 24/48 prices show small rises across the board with a basic Large Letter (up to 750g) prices increased by 15p, to £3.80 (24) and £2.95 (48), with the same increases for the Signature option.  Parcels show small rises.

Special Delivery up to 100g rise 5.7% from £8.75 to £9.25, up to 500g from 4% from £9.85 to £10.25.  Those who choose the 9 a.m. option see 28% increase from £38.95 to £49.95 for the basic 100g weight! 

International rates.  The basic worldwide letter and postcard rate rises from £3.20 to £3.40 (6.25%) airmail and from £3.10 to £3.30 for Economy (surface). Prices for airmail Large Letters and Parcels for all Zones remain unchanged, while Economy rates over 250g increase.    Economy Small Parcels rise by from 17% to over 30%.

The good news is that prices for all premium services (International Signed, International Tracked, and International Tracked and Signed) remain unchanged. 

New stamp

This means that there will be a new £3.40 stamp.  More details when we have them from Royal Mail - readers say that the stamp will be issued on 30 September, from their standing order advice notes.

UPDATE 8 September:

A new £3.40 definitive stamp, representing the new international postage rate for letters up to
100g, will be introduced by Royal Mail on 30 September 2025. The £3.40 stamp is printed in Dark
Green. The King’s effigy appears alongside a 2D barcode printed in matching colour alongside the
main body of the stamp, separated by a simulated perforation line.

King Charles III £3.40 definitive in dark green, to be issued 30 September 2025.

Royal Mail customers with a regular order for definitive stamp sets will receive this set as part of their
ongoing subscription.  There will also be an official first day cover and single-stamp presentation pack.

RM Product code DS2200 Dark Green: up to 100g all Europe & World Zones 

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You can use stamps for posting Special Delivery and other premium mail.

You knew that, of course?  We all do - we've been using the postal service for up to 60 years and we know what's what, more or less - until the rules change.

So why raise the point?  Well the problem lies mainly with Business users, but I can see that the misinformation currently being spread by Royal Mail could also start coming from Post Office especially as more and more new people are employed in customer-facing positions.

Just as an aside on this last point, after the stamp alongside was withdrawn from sale in mid-2021, I took some mail to a sub-PO counter in a local Co-op corner shop.  

It weighed more than 100g, so I used one of these stamps and others. The person who served me didn't recognise it, didn't know how much it was worth, so didn't know whether the item was fully paid, and declined to accept it.  I had to take it to the local Crown Office where no such problems exist.

Anyway, I digress.  This (below in red) is what a business user was told by Royal Mail Business Customer Service when he tried to claim on a delayed Special Delivery packet:

that Postage Stamps would not be valid for paying the fee and that the use of barcodes (which we have on rolls of 250/500) could not be used.

That this was being phased out and that customers were advised last January. People using these barcodes and postage stamps as payment would have the item Surcharged.

She said that you have 3 ways to get a Barcode and have it paid for.

1) Online and Pay by credit card

2) Take it to the Post Office and get a computer generated Barcode.

3) Use a Franking Machine

 

Like I said above, misinformation - in the extreme.  So I also phoned Royal Mail Business Customer Service and had a very interesting discussion. 

Being an ex-civil servant and knowing the way bureaucracies work, I declined to accept what I was told (which was much the same).  I pointed out that until recently Royal Mail actually issued stamps which had a Special Delivery inscription for two weights.

I politely suggested that the Customer Service Assistant went and asked someone who had worked in Royal Mail for a long time, as I had - just the previous week - sent some invalidated stamps to the Swapout scheme, using stamps to pay for Special Delivery, and another by International Tracked to Canada.

(It would be nice if Royal Mail changed their 'hold' music from a short loop.  (When I called my car insurance company this week I was treated to a long play list of Beatles hits!)  It doesn't take long for it to become tedious.)

Eventually the point was conceded, but I was reminded that the items must be posted at a Post Office counter, not in a street box.  I should have held back, but replied that, "yes, that is the way that it has been since registration was introduced in the 19th century".   

I have now got written (email) confirmation of the point - although this really only addresses people posting at Post Office, but not businesses who have their mail collected.  I hope to get clarification on that soon.

UPDATE 31 July:  As this question was originally raised on behalf of business account users who often have their mail collected - who had been told that they would not be able to use stamps - I pushed the question again for business collections, and received this answer.

So provided businesses can get the silver or orange (or international) labels - which they cannot order from Royal Mail - they can carry on as normal.

 

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More on New Counter Information Technology postage labels - and receipts etc

My thanks to W.U. for sending a couple of letters from the Aldwych New Counter Information Technology (NCIT) trial, and then sending on the receipt and certificate of posting.

The labels on the envelopes are as before, and the receipt is similar to those which are dispensed from Horizon, although Horizon receipts have a longer entry for each barcoded item - basically each one might produce an individual receipt which doubles as the certificate of posting.

Horizon Certificate of Posting for ordinary item of mail (left), and for Special Delivery mail (right)

From NCIT the receipt is much as usual, but the Certificate of Posting is quite different, using a different typeface but also with details of expected delivery timescale.

NCIT Financial receipt for three labels (left), and new-style Certificate of Posting (right).

Covers and label

1st class Signed For letter with NCIT generated barcode and (L) at lower left (as on Horizon)

2nd class Large Letter with QR-type code for confirmation of delivery, as on Horizon labels.

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Postage Value of Older Stamps including Post and Go - 2024 version.

This post brings previous tables up to date with the postage rates effective from 2 April 2024.

The tables are included primarily to explain the stamps used on cover, because they show that, for example, a stamp originally issued as a 30p Europe 20g stamp would later be valid for 100g and with a value of £1 in 2015 and £2.20 in 2023!

Remember that the International Rate stamps were all valid at the rates shown for inland postage, just as the 2nd, 1st, Large, Signed For, and Special Delivery stamps were all valid for inland services in addition to those shown and on international mail.

Now, of course, the old Machin and Country definitives without barcodes are no longer valid but the Post and Go stamps are as are the commemorative stamps, so the tables are still relevant for new use as well as for for Postal History purposes.

The E stamp was issued from January 1999-2004, and paid the Europe 20g rate.  This was 30p when issued and the cost but also the franking value increased periodically:

October 1999 (34p), April 2000 (36p), July 2001 (37p), May 2003 (38p), April 2004 (40p), April 2005 (42p), April 2006 (44p), April 2007 (48p).

Airmail Rates Table

	Europe 20g / E‡	World 10g	World 20g	World 40g
April 2009	56p	62p	90p	-
April 2010	70p	67p	97p	£1.46
April 2011	68p	76p	£1.10	£1.65
April 2012	87p		£1.28	£1.90
April 2013	88p		£1.28	£1.88
	E20/ W10	Europe 60g	World 20g	World 60g
April 2014	97p	£1.47	£1.28	£2.15
	E20/ W10	Europe 100g	World 20g	World 100g
April 2015	£1	£1.52	£1.33	£2.25
April 2016	£1.05	£1.52	£1.33	£2.25
April 2017	£1.17	£1.57	£1.40	£2.27
April 2018	£1.25	£1.55	£1.45	£2.25
April 2019	£1.35	£1.60	£1.55	£2.30
April 2020	£1.42	£1.68	£1.63	£2.42

	E20/ W10	Europe 100g	World 20g	World 100g	Europe Large 100g	World Large 100g
Sept 2020	£1.45	£1.70*	£1.70*	§	no NVI	no NVI
1 Jan 2021	£1.70	£1.70	£1.70	£2.55	£3.25
4 Apr 2022	£1.85	£1.85	£1.85	£2.55	£3.25	£4.20
3 Apr 2023	£2.20				£3.25	£4.20
2 Apr 2024	£2.50				£3.25	£4.20
7 Oct 2024	£2.80				£3.25	£4.20

All definitive and country NVI stamps were invalidated on 31 July 2023;
Christmas and Commemorative stamps remain valid.

* With effect from 1 September 2020 a combined Euro 100g/World 20g Post & Go stamp was issued, priced at £1.70.
§ On the same date the World 100g stamp was replaced by two stamps: World 100g Zone 1-3 is sold for £2.50, and World 100g Zone 2 is £2.55.
 
On 1 January 2021 the pricing for all world zones was standardised, although that for large letters over 100g varied.   The Post and Go range was then consolidated to include airmail Large Letter stamps. 

Inland premium services

Note that some of the rates were in effect before the stamps were issued, and some new stamps were issued at old rates before tariff increases.

Stamps Issued ±    or Rates Effective	1st Signed For 100g	1st Large Signed For 100g	100g Special Delivery	500g Special Delivery
17 November 2009 ±	£1.14	£1.36	-	-
6 April 2010	£1.15	£1.40	-	-
26 October 2010 ±			£5.05	£5.50
20 April 2011	£1.23	£1.52	£5.45	£5.90
30 April 2012	£1.55	£1.85	£5.90	£6.35
2 April 2013 §	£1.70	£2.00	£6.22	£6.95
31 March 2014	£1.72	£2.03	£6.40	£7.15
30 March 2015	£1.73	£2.05	£6.45	£7.25
29 March 2016	£1.74	£2.06
27 March 2017	£1.75	£2.08
26 March 2018	£1.77	£2.11	£6.50	£7.30
25 March 2019	£1.90	£2.26	£6.60	£7.40
23 March 2020	£2.06	£2.45	£6.70	£7.50
1 January 2021	£2.25	£2.69	£6.85	£7.65
4 April 2022	£2.35	£2.85
3 April 2023	£2.60	£3.10

Special Delivery and Signed For stamps were invalidated on 31 July 2023.

 § Royal Mail Signed For stamps were issued 27 March 2013, replacing Recorded Signed For, but were sold at old rates until 2 April. 

 

** Compensation for Signed For was reduced from £50 to £20 on this date, and compensation for Special Delivery was increased from £50 to £750.

  

Inland basic letter rates

Comprehensive tables of postage rates have been published by the Great Britain Philatelic Society and are freely available.  These and the rest of a hugely comprehensive website have been put together using members' subscriptions, so if you agree it is worth paying to join.

 

 

Please let me know by email if you spot any errors or omissions in this blog post.  

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Royal Mail Tracked® - a new service coming to a Post Office near you.

A new service was shown in this year's new Postal Rates leaflet. Referred to in the main heading as UK Tracked, but branded as Royal Mail Tracked® this offers yet another level of protection/tracking for mail within the UK. It also seems to offer a better option for posting packages to customers!

This service did not start on 2 April as suggested by the rates leaflet. See new post for more news.

A recap

Existing services are UK Guaranteed, branded as Special Delivery with 9am and 1pm and Saturday Guarantees, with various optional levels of compensation, and weights starting at 100g.  Minimum price will be £7.95 from 2 April 2024.

The other current service is UK Signed which we all know as Royal Mail Signed For. Many members of the public think that as this has a barcode it can be tracked, but the original branding described it exactly - Recorded Delivery.  Nothing more, nothing less - a signature on delivery (probably).  This mail is handled in just the same way as UK Standard 1st & 2nd class mail and is subject to just the same delays. There is no penalty for not delivering within the regulator's targets and so no pressure on delivery office managers to get delivery done.

Minimum price for 1st class is £3.05 (Large £3.80), 2nd class £2.55 (Large £3.25): from 2 April compensation is reducing from £50 to £20.

New Service

Royal Mail Tracked provides photo-proof of delivery and compensation up to £150.   Currently this service is only available with online postage, although once paid online labels can be printed at Post Offices.   Labels like this are produced

Update 31 July 2024.  The example I showed above is marked (at top right) 'Postage on Account GB'. 

A new Tracked 48 label arrived today which, I think, may have been produced after payment at the Post Office counter.  This has different details, including the Branch Code, VAT code, and only  a QR-type code, not a normal barcode, and the cost of £2.70.  

Tracked 48 label believed to have been generated at a Post Office branch.

 

If it had been sent by ordinary post it would have cost £1.55, but Signed For would have cost £3.25 (both 2nd class).   So if you have no particular reason to use stamps, and every reason (eg eBay sale) to obtain a tracking number, this would seem to be the sensible option.  I think we may see more of these as time goes on, although for sellers who buy discounted postage (not counterfeit) at 80% or less, then Signed For would be an option for the same sort of price, although this is not tracked during its journey.

Unlike for Special Delivery, Royal Mail's online tracker does not show where Tracked 24/48 was posted (Shepperton PO), only the intermediate points (in this case Jubilee and Norwich Mail Centres); it then shows 'delivery' to the PO Box by Dereham DO.

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The Tracked24 service provides

    •    Tracking to delivery point
    •    Photo on delivery
    •    SMS or email notifications to recipients
    •    Next working day delivery aim
    •    Compensation cover up to £150
    •    Change your delivery options before delivery is attempted

Tracked48 aims to deliver in 2-3 working days, but otherwise the same services.

This is the service which will now be available at Post Offices on demand.  At this stage branches don't know much about it but it seems that whilst normally Horizon labels will be used (and a new code, perhaps?), it will also be possible to prepay in stamps before you leave home!  Wrong - see below; stamps cannot be used.

There is no rate for letters (although letters may be sent at the Large Letter rate) the lowest price is £3.50 for a Large Letter up to 750g for Tracked24 and £2.70 for Tracked48.  The signed option costs more.

So how does this compare with existing services?

The cheapest way to send a letter will still be under a pound at 85p (2nd class) and £1.35 (1st class).  

But for dealers sending out orders, or collectors sending (say) first day covers to the postmarking centres or selling on online platforms, this could be a much better option than Royal Mail Signed For.  EBay, for example, prefer items to be tracked - and Signed For doesn't involve tracking.

If a signature is not obtained every time, or is so illegible as not to indicate who actually signed for the package, then what use is Signed For?

Prices for 750 grammes (I have compared Tracked48 with 2nd class and Tracked 24 with 1st.):

2nd class: standard - £2.70;  signed for - £4.40;  Tracked48 - £2.70;   Tracked48 with signature - £4.40.

1st class:  standard - £3.50;  signed for - £5.20;  Tracked24 - £3.50;   Tracked24 with signature - £5.20.

So rather than send packages by 1st class Signed For (when we don't actually need a signature) we can send them by Tracked48 for 80p less or Tracked24 for the same amount as standard post. 

Yes, you can get your 750g mail Tracked without paying any extra!   

A basic 2nd class Signed For letter at £2.55 is only 15p less than Tracked48 without signature. Similarly a 100g 1st class Signed For Large Letter at £3.80 is 60p less than Tracked 48 with signature but much more than Tracked 48 without.

If tracking is preferable to a signature then 15p is a reasonable price to pay.

Impact on Services

Services will only be impacted if people take advantage of this new option - and if I have understood everything correctly!

Post Office branches will deal with more over the counter work than previously. Even if you take Standard Letters into branch to get a certificate of posting, that has go to be quicker than Tracked processing.

Royal Mail Deliveries are already suffering and workers on the coal face say that tracked parcels are prioritised over ordinary letters (which includes Signed For).  Corporate management deny that this is policy but the fact remains that it is happening.   So if we send Tracked24/48 they will have even more to prioritise.  

I feel sorry for the people who don't get their mail when they should: we have absolutely no trouble locally - if I can send an order to Skye on Friday and have the cheque on Tuesday, then it couldn't be any better.

But UKTracked is certainly going to be worth considering from now on.

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UPDATE 15 July 2024  'Harry' reports that these services have now gone live at all post offices in WHSmith branches.  There is no option to prepay in stamps neither the whole nor part of the cost.  This is a photo of the screen with the 'Pre-paid' button greyed out.

Horizon screen when Tracked 24/48 being purchased - no option to prepay in stamps.

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1st class post to increase to £1.25 from 2 October 2023

To start this post I'll repeat today' press release.  As I find more about prices I will include it below.

A second post today concerns Post & Go activities. 

Royal Mail Press Release - Stamp prices

1 September 2023 

From 2 October 2023, the price of First Class stamps will increase by 15p to £1.25 due to increasing cost pressures, the challenging economic environment, and the lack of reform of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) despite the significant structural decline in letter volumes. The price of Second Class stamps will remain at 75p.

The new price of a First Class stamp is in line with European median prices, and Second Class stamp prices remain well below the median. Royal Mail has sought to keep price increases as low as possible in the face of declining letter volumes. Letter volumes have fallen from 20 billion in 2004/5 to 7 billion a year in 2022/3, while the number of addresses has risen by four million in the same period.

The USO – which currently requires Royal Mail to deliver letters to all 32 million UK addresses six days a week – is in need of urgent reform. Royal Mail has been clear that the cost of delivering an ever-decreasing number of letters to an ever-growing number of households six days a week is unsustainable. Ofcom’s own research in 2020 shows that that a five day a week Monday to Friday letters service would
meet the needs of 97% of consumers and SMEs. Given the ongoing decline in letters, Royal Mail continues to call on Ofcom and the Government to review and modernise the USO to better reflect changing customer needs.

At the full year results in May 2023, Royal Mail reported a £419 million loss.

Nick Landon, Chief Commercial Officer at Royal Mail 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% from their peak in 2004/5 and 30% since the pandemic. It is vital that the Universal  Service adapts to reflect this new reality.”

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As this says, Ofcom have already found that five-day letter delivery would satisfy most users:

• The current USO service levels, including the six days a week (Monday-Saturday) letter delivery requirement, meets the needs of 98% of residential users and 97% of SMEs in the UK.

• Reducing the letters service to five days a week (Monday to Friday), but leaving all other elements of the service unchanged, would still meet the needs of 97% of residential and Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) users.

• We found very little variation in users’ views on five-day letter delivery across the UK, including the four nations of the UK or how remote users’ locations are. Variation by other characteristics such as age, disability or whether users had access to the internet was also very limited.

• However, reducing the frequency of letter delivery to three days a week would have a significantly larger impact on users, meeting around 62-78% of SMEs and 79-85% of residential users’ needs.

• The evidence suggests reducing the frequency of letter deliveries requirement to five days a week would reflect users’ reasonable needs. It would also potentially allow Royal Mail to make net cost savings of around £125-225m per year in 2022/23 terms, assuming Royal Mail is able to realise these savings by modifying its operational delivery model.

(You can read the full Ofcom '2020 Review of postal users needs' here.)

Amid falling mail volumes, and worldwide reductions in mail deliveries, the crux of the matter is that Royal Mail appears to be trying to force the regulator (Ofcom) to abide by its own research and reduce the USO to 5 days a week, while the regulator will almost certainly be under pressure from politicians not to permit this. So blame the politicians.

One thing that would be necessary would a change in posting habits of the NHS, and any other organisation sending communications which could be time-sensitive.  It is pointless sending appointment letters 5 days before the appointment by second class mail. More people need to accept reminders by text message (SMS) and more organisations need to embrace it.

Given the complaints that abound in the media, and on social media, many would say that they are only getting 3-day week delivery.  And remember that many people would not receive letters every day anyway.  There are days when we get none for the household, only for the business.

No news yet on changes for higher-weight items or premium, but we can assume we can confirm that 1st class Signed For will be £2.75, 2nd class SF stays at £2..25.

1st class Large will be £1.95 and 1st Large Signed For £3.45.   The rates for 500g rise to that for 750g across the board, but the top rate is unchanged.   At first sight parcel rates appear unchanged.

Special Delivery 100g rises 50p to £7.35, and 500g rises 50p to £8.15.

The new prices leaflet has now been made available for download here.

UPDATE 22 September 2023

In the same format as reported in earlier tariff posts, these are the changes in summary:

The 1st class inland letter rate will rise from £1.10 to £1.25.

The 2nd class letter rate remains at 75p, but the rates for large letters rise.

Small and Medium Parcel rates are unchanged.

	1st		2nd
Letter	1.10	1.25	0.75	0.75
Large Letter – 100g	1.60	1.95	1.15	1.55
- 250g	2.25	2.70	1.85	2.40
- 500g	2.95	3.30	2.40	2.70
- 750g	3.30	3.30	2.70	2.70

The effect on sets of Post and Go stamps is an increase of 35p on the 1st class collectors set and 40p on the 2nd class collectors set over the April rates.

There rates for Special Delivery 1pm rise from £6.85 to £7.35 for 100g, and there are 50p increases for other weight steps.

The rates for Signed For are also increasing, the extra is £1.50 for 1st class Letters and Large Letters on top of the rates in the table above. Parcel rates remain unchanged.

The cost of Post Office Boxes is unchanged from the April increase at £330.

There are no changes to International Rates.

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