Citizens Advice responds to the Business and Trade Committee’s report on the regulation of postal services
Responding to the Business and Trade Committee’s report on the regulation of postal services, Tom MacInnes, Director of Policy at Citizens Advice, said:
“These findings are a damning indictment of the issues we’ve been sounding the alarm on for years - unacceptable letter delays, rising stamp prices and a regulator that has failed to get a grip on Royal Mail’s continuous poor service.
“The Committee is right to question whether Royal Mail has been prioritising parcels over letters and an urgent, thorough investigation is needed into why the company has gotten away with missing its delivery targets for so long. It’s clear the regulator’s current approach is failing to provide any real incentives for Royal Mail to do its job.
“Ofcom can’t continue as a bystander and instead, needs to completely overhaul the way it oversees the postal market. The regulator must put a stop to Royal Mail hiking stamp prices until it proves it can consistently hit its new lower targets. Those who rely on the country’s postal service can’t afford another improvement plan that fails to deliver.”
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Notes to editors:
Last year Ofcom announced changes to the Universal Service Obligation (USO) held by Royal Mail.
Now, the company only has to deliver 2nd class post on alternate weekdays, instead of six-days-a-week, Mon-Sat. This change was initially implemented at 35 pilot sites, and with a phased approach now in progress, full implementation is expected at all delivery offices by December.
Ofcom also lowered Royal Mail’s headline annual delivery targets as part of the changes to the USO, which means that as of April 1st 2026, Royal Mail is only required to deliver 90% of 1st class mail within one working day (instead of 93%), and 95% of 2nd class mail within three days (instead of 98.5%).
In its improvement plan published in April 2026, Royal Mail said it aims to meet its new, lower delivery targets in 12 months.
The last time Royal Mail met a 1st class annual delivery target was the financial year 2016/17. The last time Royal Mail met a 2nd class annual delivery target was the financial year 2019/20
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