£7 for a first class stamp - that's the prediction from shock report on Royal Mail's rising costs

​Sending a letter could cost nearly £7 by 2035 — that is the stark finding of a study that has tracked what Royal Mail has done to stamp prices every year since 2020.

The study has calculated the average annual rate of increase, and projected that forward to 2035.A first class stamp has gone from 76p in 2020 to £1.80 today — a rise of 136 per cent in six years across eight separate price increases.

It comes as the Royal Mail unveils is plans to improve delivery times - and to scrap second class post on a Saturday.

The full price history of stamps since 2020 tells its own story: 76p in 2020, 85p in April 2021, 95p in April 2022, £1.10 in April 2023, £1.25 in October 2023, £1.35 in April 2024, £1.65 in October 2024, £1.70 in April 2025, and £1.80 from 7 April 2026. A book of eight first class stamps that cost £6.08 in 2020 now costs £14.40.

Second class stamps have also risen, though more slowly — from 65p in 2020 to 91p today, a rise of 40 per cent over the same period. Notably, today's second class stamp costs almost exactly what a first class stamp cost at the start of 2022.

To arrive at the 2035 figures, the website Quote My Wall took the official Royal Mail price of each stamp in 2020 and in April 2026 and calculated the compound annual growth rate for each – that is, the average percentage by which the price increased each year across those six years.

For first class stamps that works out at approximately 15.5 per cent per year. Applied to today's price of £1.80, and projected forward nine years to 2035, that produces an estimated price of £6.69. For second class stamps the annual rate was approximately 5.8 per cent, producing an estimated price of £1.51 by 2035.

Both figures are projections based on the historical rate of increase and are not a forecast of what Royal Mail will charge.

Matt Marshall, spokesperson for Quote My Wall said: "Everyone knows stamps have gone up a lot but I don't think people realise quite how much. When you actually sit down and do the maths, the price of a first class stamp has gone up more than the stock market since 2020, which is a pretty mad thing to say about a stamp.

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"Obviously most people aren't buying stamps as an investment, but it does put the increases into perspective. If it carries on at this rate you're looking at nearly £7 to post a letter by 2035.

“That is a lot of money for something most people think of as a small everyday expense. The rises have drawn sustained criticism. Royal Mail says the increases reflect the rising cost of maintaining its delivery network as letter volumes have fallen by 70 per cent over the past 20 years, while the number of addresses it delivers to has grown by four million to 32million across the UK.

But the last time the company met its annual delivery targets was the financial year 2019 to 2020.

Ofcom fined Royal Mail £21 million in late 2025 for repeatedly missing those targets in the years since — yet stamp prices have continued to rise regardless.

Citizens Advice has argued that consumers should not keep being asked to pay more for a service that continues to fall short of its own benchmarks.

Royal Mail’s pledge to improve

Royal Mail has pledged to meet new postal delivery targets by May next year as part of a £500 million investment after agreeing a plan to roll out changes to scrap second-class post on Saturdays.

The group said it would begin to phase in a new letter delivery model nationwide next month, subject to a consultation with union members, which will see it deliver second-class post every other weekday only.

It follows agreement with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Unite last week, bringing an end to a lengthy dispute over the second-class post overhaul.

Royal Mail said the changes and planned investment will see it improve first class next-day delivery to around 85 per cent within nine months of the reforms being brought in, before reaching the 90 per cent target set by regulator Ofcom within a year.

The firm also vowed to deliver 93 per cent of second-class letters in three days within the space of nine months, and hit the 95 per cent target by May next year.

Royal Mail was fined a record £21 million by Ofcom last October for missing targets after it delivered just 77 per cent of first-class post and 92.5 per cent of second-class post on time in 2024-25.

From April 1 , Ofcom lowered the delivery targets for first-class post to be delivered the next day from 93 per cent to 90 per cent and second-class to be delivered within three days from 98.5 per cent to 95 per cent.

But Ofcom added a new "enforceable" backstop delivery target, so that 99 per cent of mail has to be delivered no more than two days late.

Royal Mail said its £500 million investment in the service over the next five years included an agreement to allow around 6,000 part-time postal workers to increase their average weekly hours if needed as part of the second-class post reforms.

It will be funded by savings made from the changes to the Universal Service.

Alistair Cochrane , chief executive of Royal Mail , said: "We recognise our service hasn't always been the standard our customers rightly expect and we're determined to do better.

"The plan we've set out today shows how we'll make a step change in performance across the UK, backed by £500 million of investment over the next five years."