Individual Membership 
On 30th January 2025 Ofcom announced a package of proposed reforms to our postal service, the Universal Service Obligation (USO) and changes to Royal Mail’s obligation to provide access to its letter network.
Currently the USO requires the delivery of First Class and Second Class letters six days a week (Monday to Saturday).
Ofcom proposes to allow Royal Mail to deliver 2nd class letters on alternate weekdays (Monday to Friday), with no Saturday delivery. This leaving card senders posting cards to arrive at the weekend with no option but to use the unregulated 1st class service – with stamps now costing £1.65 (after 5 price increases in the last 3 years), compared to 85p for a 2nd class stamp- currently regulated by the USO.
The announcement resulted in lots of media focus on the card industry with GCA members Pip Heywood MD Thortful, Heidi Early co-owner of Earlybird and GCA’s CEO Amanda Fergusson speaking to the ITV, BBC LBC among others raising the profile of greeting cards and talking about the importance of greeting cards to the British public.
GCA CEO Amanda Fergusson said “That will leave greeting card lovers everywhere dependent on an unregulated expensive first class stamp for the cards that need to arrive at the on a weekend, so this is hugely concerning for our industry. Many consumers rely on the regulated second class postage, currently 85p, to send greeting cards.
Ofcom say reductions in the second class service, to every other weekday, can be made without approval from MPs. This highlights the importance of our petition to parliament – we are asking for a parliamentary review of changes to our 500 year old postal service; please sign and share our petition we must get to 10,000 signatures, we’d love to get to 100,000, we know from the media the strength of consumer feeling about this across the country”
Clink this link to sign GCA Petition asking for Parliamentary scrutiny of proposals to amend Royal Mail USO
The full details of the Ofcom review, and how to respond, can be seen here
To see all the GCA’s media coverage as part of the #Cardmitment campaign to promote and protect our industry click here
