Responding to Royal Mail’s price announcement, Robert Hammond, Director of Postal Policy and Regulation at Consumer Focus said:

‘Posting letters and parcels is an essential service and consumers are looking much harder at value for money and quality of service, even on the price of a stamp.

‘This year’s freeze on stamp prices for letters, following the big rise last year, is welcome news. The simplification of the pricing structure for parcels also makes sense, although consumers will need to be aware that the new medium parcel price may be more expensive than the current price.

‘Hopefully the changes to the parcels services will make choices simpler for consumers. However we all know that any change can be confusing, and so we would hope to see very clear information about the new services parcels displayed in every post office and for counter staff to provide consumers with the correct advice, so they choose the product and price that is right for them.

‘Also it would make good sense to identify every parcel posted over the counter with a simple mark to show that the consumer had made every effort to get it priced correctly.’