Royal Mail is going to raise the price of First and Second Class stamps by 2p, from 6 April 2010 – that's the bad news.
The good news is that the rate remains unchanged for small firms that use ordinary meter mail and those that have business accounts – they will continue to pay 36p and 25p respectively for standard letters weighing up to100g.
It's Joe and Jane Public who will pay the price – according to Royal Mail the hike will add around 3p a week to the average UK household's weekly 50p spend on postage. They say the increase will affect only 12% of mail sent in the UK and that collecting and delivering stamped mail led to losses of around £250 million in 2008-09.
Royal Mail claim that that stamp prices will still be among the lowest in Europe – the average cost of sending a 100g item by First Class post or equivalent in Europe is now 82p, twice the new UK price. Of course, there's no mention of the quality of service.
We couldn't check out full details of the new prices. The URL in the press release – www.royalmail.com/prices2010– came up as 'nocontent'. Be that as it may, the pegging of meter mail prices next year should bring some Christmas cheer to small businesses. Would this be an incentive for you to stick with Royal Mail? Drop us a line.
