Stamp prices are set to rise again in April, the Royal Mail has announced, marking the sixth price hike in three years.

The cost of a first-class stamp will climb to £1.70, a 5p increase, while second-class stamps will be 87p, a 2p rise, when the changes come into effect on April 7.

Royal Mail, which was fined £10.5 million by regulators for failing to meet its delivery targets last year, said the spiralling prices are because of the “increasing cost of delivering mail”.

It means first-class stamps have more than doubled in price in the last five years, after they cost just 76p in 2020.

Tom MacInnes, director of policy at Citizens Advice, said the price increase is “yet another blow to consumers”.

“While stamp prices continue to climb, millions of people face post delays every year.

“Royal Mail hasn’t met an annual delivery target for five years, but consumers will pay 124% more for a first-class stamp, and 34% more for a second-class stamp, than they did in 2020.”

The last time Royal Mail met its annual target for delivering first-class post on time was in 2019-20.

The company, which was privatised in 2013, said letter volumes have fallen from 20 billion a year in 2005 to 6.7 billion in 2024.

Over the same period, the number of addresses has risen, it said, meaning the cost of each delivery “continues to rise”, according to chief commercial officer Nick Landon.

He added that Royal Mail’s one-price-goes-anywhere so-called universal service obligation needs “urgent reform”, arguing it does not meet modern customers’ needs.

The universal service currently requires Royal Mail to deliver letters six days a week and parcels five days a week, but is under review.The Royal Mail was privatised in 2013 (Chris Radburn/PA)

Regulator Ofcom is consulting on plans to remove second-class deliveries on Saturdays and reduce them to two or three days per week.

Amanda Fergusson, chief executive of the Greeting Card Association, said: “Here we go again.

“Yet again Royal Mail is asking people to keep paying more, for less, demonstrating the urgency behind our call for MPs to investigate Ofcom and Royal Mail’s plan to weaken the service.

“Our members – and their customers – know imminent plans to slash second-class services will leave them reliant on a first-class stamp at runaway prices.

“It’s time for MPs to act – they must make sure Royal Mail isn’t given carte blanche to make the postal service less reliable and unaffordable.”

It comes as Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky closes in on a deal to buy Royal Mail from current owner International Distribution Services.

The purchase, agreed in 2024, has now been delayed until the second quarter amid a political crisis in Romania, according to a statement earlier this week.

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