Royal Mail is putting up the price of stamps again.

A first class stamp is to increase by 10p to £1.35 while second class stamps will also go up by 10p to 85p.

It is the third price rise for a first class stamp, which cost just 95p a year ago.

In April 2023 the price was changed to £1.10 before going up again by 15p last October.

The new charges will come into effect on April 2.

The increases also come just over a month after Ofcom said Royal Mail may be able to cut deliveries of letters to three or five days a week, as it explores ways to reform and modernise the service.

Last year, industry regulator Ofcom said increases to the price of second-class stamps would be capped at the rate of inflation until 2029 in an effort to keep the sending of letters affordable.

Nick Landon, chief commercial officer at Royal Mail, said: “We always consider price changes very carefully but we face a situation where letter volumes have reduced dramatically over recent years while costs have increased.

“It is no longer sustainable to maintain a network built for 20 billion letters when we are now only delivering seven billion.

“As a result of letter volume decline, our posties now have to walk more than three times as far to deliver the same number of letters as before, increasing the delivery costs per letter.”