Royal Mail delivered Christmas letters and parcels late to about 16m people

Royal Mail has been criticised for offering an “unacceptable” performance over the crucial Christmas period after it failed to deliver letters and cards on time to about 16 million people, Citizens Advice found.The consumer watchdog, which carried out research into Christmas deliveries, said that figure was 50% higher than in 2024, and the highest level over the festive period in five years, excluding when Royal Mail was hit by strike action in the run-up to Christmas four years ago.“We’re afraid there’s no light at the end of the tunnel for consumers struggling with Royal Mail’s persistent delivery failures,” said Anne Pardoe, the head of policy at Citizens Advice. “When people have no other postal provider to choose from, the sheer volume of delays is simply unacceptable.”The research, based on a survey of almost 2,100 adults conducted by Yonder, calculated that 5.7 million of the 16 million who experienced delivery delays missed out on receiving important information, such as health appointments, fines, benefit decisions and legal documents.“The company’s dreadful festive slump is about much more than late Christmas cards,” said Pardoe. “This is a worrying trend, and with cuts to delivery days looming, [postal regulator] Ofcom must start cracking down even harder on missed targets before things go from bad to worse.”Ofcom does not apply normal delivery targets for Royal Mail over the busy festive period.“Independent data shows that more than 99% of items posted by the last recommended dates arrived in time for Christmas,” said a spokesperson for Royal Mail. “This was during our busiest time of year, when volumes more than double, and we’re grateful to our teams across the country who worked incredibly hard to deliver for our customers.”It was the first Christmas since the £3.6bn takeover of Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distribution Services (IDS), by the Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský.In July, Ofcom gave IDS permission to end second-class post on Saturdays and reduce the service to alternating weekdays from Monday to Friday.The cost of a first-class stamp has more than doubled since 2020, to £1.70, while a second-class stamp costs 87p.According to Citizens Advice, more than a third (36%) of those surveyed said they sent fewer Christmas cards this year because stamps were too expensive.Royal Mail, which last year reported its first annual profit for three years, has not hit its Ofcom-mandated delivery target for first-class post since 2017, or for second-class mail since 2020.In October, the regulator fined Royal Mail £21m for missing its annual delivery targets.“Any future stamp price increases should be conditional on Royal Mail meeting these targets,” Pardoe said.A decade ago Royal Mail was delivering 20bn letters a year, but that has shrunk to 6.7bn and could drop to 4bn within four years. Over the same timeframe the number of addresses it serves has risen by 4m.The company was criticised before Christmas after it downgraded an annual perk – it gave workers second-class stamps instead of a book of 50 or 100 first-class stamps as in previous years.