Royal Mail has pledged to meet new postal delivery targets by May next year, supported by a significant £500 million investment. This commitment coincides with plans to effectively scrap Saturday second-class post.
A new letter delivery model will begin phasing in nationwide next month, subject to union consultation. This system will see second-class mail delivered only on alternate weekdays.
The move follows last week’s agreement with the Communication Workers Union (CWU), resolving a lengthy dispute over the second-class post overhaul.
The company anticipates these changes and investment will boost first-class next-day delivery to around 85 per cent within nine months, aiming for regulator Ofcom’s 90 per cent target within a year.
Royal Mail also vowed to deliver 93 per cent of second-class letters in three days within nine months, reaching 95 per cent by May next year. Regulator Ofcom has urged the company to “get on and implement” its improvement plan.
Royal Mail – whose owner International Distribution Services was bought last year by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky – was fined a record £21 million by Ofcom in 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 1 April, 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.”
It comes after Ofcom said it had been pushing for a “credible plan for change, backed by investment”.
Natalie Black, Ofcom’s group director for infrastructure and connectivity, said: “Now that’s published, Royal Mail needs to get on and implement it.
“Their plan must deliver significant and continuous improvement, with performance getting back on track.”
Ofcom last year gave the green light to Royal Mail’s plans to scale back second-class letter deliveries, starting from 28 July, while keeping the first-class and parcels service unchanged.
Royal Mail launched the changes across 35 delivery offices as a pilot, but wider expansion across its 1,200-strong network ground to a halt over the disagreement with the CWU.
The agreement reached last week, which is now being put to CWU members for a ballot, will see the Universal Service reforms extended to another 240 delivery offices initially, before being completed across the full network by December.
Dave Ward, general secretary of the CWU, said: “We welcome any serious proposal that seeks to reverse customer service failings at Royal Mail, but what really matters is what happens on the ground to make that change happen.
He said postal workers “need answers over whether the workforce will be properly resourced and retained, whether they will have a real say over how change is deployed, what manageable workloads look like, and how serious issues are fixed”.