New Royal Mail postage prices from April 2009

The price changes will take effect from 6 April 2009.

First and Second class stamps for standard letters weighing up to 100g would rise by 3p, to 39p and 30p respectively, from 6 April 2009.

The price increases will add less than 5p to the average UK household’s weekly expenditure – households currently spend around £26 on postage each year, considerably less than on other forms of communication, including telephone and broadband services.

After the new prices take effect, Royal Mail’s stamp prices will remain among the lowest in Europe, while Quality of Service is among the best. However, even after these price rises stamped mail will still be loss making for Royal Mail.

Business customers will see price increases averaging 4.2%, but the changes include a range of measures to ensure that both large and small businesses can get the best value for money from Royal Mail’s services:

– Smaller price increases for businesses using franking machines and pre-paid accounts;

– Increased discounts for machineable mail and lower than inflation increases for many bulk business services including Mailsort 2.