Royal Mail to make major change affecting households across the UK

Royal Mail is set to make a major change for thousands of UK households.

The postal service, which is being bought by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, will be scrapping Saturday second-class post for almost a million homes in 2025.

It will trial making fewer deliveries from February at 37 of it’s 1,200 delivery offices. The exact locations haven’t been revealed but it will effect three offices in each 12 regions.

First-class and parcel deliveries will still be made six days a week.

Currently, Royal Mail must deliver letters six days a week to all 32million addresses in the UK under the Universal Service Obligation.

But the postal service has been lobbying for change for four years, saying the commitment costs up to £2million a day.

Early next year, Ofcom will launch a consultation on the proposal with a final decision expected to be made in the summer.

The five-day postal week could then roll out across the UK. There wouldn’t need to be any involvement from parliament for this decision to be pushed through.

Letter volumes have fallen from a peak of 20billion a year in 2004/5 to just 6.7billion annually, according to the postal service.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “The pilots are designed to ensure everything runs smoothly and we can deliver a better customer experience if we deploy any Universal Service changes.

“We will only look to implement our new operating model if Ofcom’s new regulations come into force. Until then, the current regulatory framework remains in place and any proposals are subject to change.”