Royal Mail has warned of delivery delays affecting 36 postcode areas across the UK this weekend. The company said that due to local issues such as high levels of sick absence and resourcing problems, some addresses may not receive mail on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June.
In a statement, Royal Mail said: 'We aim to deliver to all addresses we have mail for, six days a week. In a small number of local offices, this may temporarily not be possible due to local issues... We're sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.'
Affected areas include Nottingham, Oxfordshire, Ashington, Ilfracombe and Pontyclun. The company has faced criticism over late deliveries and was fined £21 million by Ofcom in October after missing targets, delivering only 77% of First Class and 92.5% of Second Class post on time in 2024-2025.
Royal Mail has now set improved targets: to deliver around 85% of First Class mail next day within nine months, and 93% of Second Class within three days over the same period. By March, it reported delivering 81.1% of First Class and 90.2% of Second Class on time.
Jamie Stephenson, Royal Mail’s chief operating officer, said: 'We’re putting significant investment into improving reliability... but delivering lasting change across a network of this scale takes time.' He added that a new delivery model would be deployed to all offices by Christmas.
