Royal Mail announces First and Second Class letter stamp prices to remain unchanged

Royal Mail has announced that the price of First Class and Second Class letter stamps will remain unchanged for 2013. Last year, Ofcom’s decision on a new regulatory framework for UK postal services gave Royal Mail greater freedom in the way it sets prices and Royal Mail has announced that it does not need to draw on this pricing freedom and therefore will leave the price of First Class and Second Class letter stamps unchanged.

• The price of a First Class stamp will continue to be 60p
• The price of a Second Class stamp will also remain unchanged at 50p
• The price of a First Class Large Letter stamp will remain at 90p
• The price of a Second Class Large Letter stamp also remains unchanged at 69p

Changes to Royal Mail parcels range

Royal Mail has also announced changes to its parcel range, to bring the operator in line with other major European postal services. For the first time, from 2 April, customers will be able to send parcels between 1kg and 20kg using Royal Mail’s Second Class service, with the added option to receive a signature on delivery. As a result of this new service, the Standard Parcel product will be withdrawn and the number of First Class weight bands for parcels will more than halve, from fifteen currently, to seven.

Royal Mail is also introducing two parcel categories – small parcels and medium parcels. The organisation has previously priced by weight only. An official statement added that: 'The size of a parcel has a bearing on the cost of collecting, transporting, sorting and delivering an item and this will now be reflected in the price.'

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