There is some welcome news for businesses planning direct mail campaigns this autumn.
Proposed Royal Mail wholesale access price increases due to take effect from 5 October 2026 have been suspended while Ofcom considers a dispute over the changes.
For businesses planning bulk print and post campaigns over the coming months, it’s an important development – particularly as we enter one of the busiest mailing periods of the year.
So, what has happened and what could it mean for businesses using bulk mail?
What has Ofcom announced?
On 4 September 2026, Ofcom announced that it had accepted a dispute between Royal Mail and the Mail Competition Forum, acting on behalf of 17 access customers.
The dispute relates to wholesale price increases announced by Royal Mail in July and scheduled to take effect from 5 October 2026.
Ofcom will now consider the proposed increases and whether the charges are fair and reasonable under its regulatory rules.
Importantly, while that process takes place, the proposed wholesale access price increases are suspended.
Ofcom says it intends to issue its decision within four months.
What does this mean for bulk mail?
The announcement is particularly relevant to the bulk mailing industry because it relates to Royal Mail’s access services.
Access mail is widely used for large-volume business post and direct mail. Mail is collected and sorted before being handed to Royal Mail for the final delivery to the recipient.
It’s one of the ways professional mailing houses can achieve postal efficiencies when handling larger mailing volumes.
The current Ofcom dispute is specifically about proposed wholesale access price increases, rather than every Royal Mail product or service.
Does this mean all Royal Mail October price increases have been paused?
No – and this is an important distinction.
The Ofcom dispute specifically concerns the wholesale access price increases contained within Royal Mail’s Contract Change Notice 129.
Other Royal Mail price changes may still apply.
However, for businesses using professional bulk mailing services, the suspension of the proposed access increases is certainly welcome news.
Good timing for autumn and Christmas campaigns
The announcement comes at a particularly useful time.
September is when many businesses and organisations begin planning:
- Autumn marketing campaigns
- Christmas promotions
- Charity fundraising appeals
- Corporate Christmas cards
- Customer communications
- End-of-year campaigns
- January 2027 marketing
For anyone considering a sizeable print and post campaign, having greater short-term clarity around wholesale access pricing is positive.
And our advice remains the same:
Don’t wait until the last minute to start planning your mailing.
Getting your campaign organised early gives you more time to prepare the data, artwork, targeting and production schedule.
Bulk postage isn’t the same as buying individual stamps
If you’re planning to send 1,000, 5,000, 10,000 or considerably more letters, you shouldn’t simply look at the price of an individual stamp and multiply it by your mailing volume.
Bulk mail works differently.
Depending on your quantity, format, data and campaign specification, there can be much more cost-effective ways of printing and posting your letters.
In fact, Selectabase bulk print and post costs can start from as little as 49p + VAT per item for a single-sided A4 letter, depending on mailing volume, specification and the postal service the campaign qualifies for.
That can include far more than simply the postage.
Using Selectabase to handle your small or large-volume mailing requirements can provide significant time and cost savings for your business, with the printing, personalisation, enclosing, fulfilment and postage all managed for you.
Rather than buying paper, printing thousands of letters internally, sourcing envelopes, mail merging documents, stuffing envelopes and then trying to organise the postage yourself, you can hand the complete campaign over to an experienced mailing house.
Everything handled under one roof
At Selectabase, we can combine:
- Printing
- Personalisation
- Mail merge
- Envelopes
- Fulfilment
- Bulk postage
- Targeted B2B data
- Targeted B2C data
into one complete campaign.
And you don’t need to be sending tens of thousands of items to use us.
We help businesses with smaller targeted mailings as well as large-volume bulk mail campaigns, so it’s always worth asking us for a quote before assuming that printing and posting everything yourself will be cheaper.
Direct mail continues to deliver in 2026
We’re continuing to see strong demand for physical mail in 2026.
A professionally produced letter, postcard or mailing pack is delivered directly to the audience you’ve selected.
It doesn’t have to compete for visibility in an overcrowded email inbox.
It isn’t dependent on somebody searching for the right keyword.
And it isn’t reliant on a social media algorithm deciding whether your customer or prospect sees it.
We’ve seen this across the different sectors we work with – from M&A firms and financial services to hearing clinics, charities and businesses looking for new customers.
For the right audience and campaign, direct mail remains an incredibly powerful way of getting your message in front of people.
A good time to plan your next mailing
With the proposed wholesale access increases currently suspended, businesses planning autumn and Christmas campaigns have another reason to start getting their campaigns organised.
If you already know you’re going to be sending physical mail between now and Christmas, speak to us early.
We can help you look at:
- The most appropriate mailing format
- Target audience
- Mailing quantities
- Print specification
- Personalisation
- Postage options
- Recommended mailing dates
And if you don’t already have the audience, we can also help you build a targeted UK business or consumer mailing list.
Planning a bulk mailing in 2026?
Whether you’re sending hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of letters, speak to Selectabase before spending hours trying to print, fulfil and post the campaign yourself.
With bulk print and post prices starting from as little as 49p + VAT per item for qualifying single-sided A4 letter campaigns, outsourcing your mailing could be considerably more cost-effective than you think.
We can manage everything from targeted mailing data and printing through to fulfilment and bulk postage.
Call Selectabase on 01304 383838 for a bulk print and post quote.
For now, the pause in the proposed wholesale access increases is welcome news for the UK bulk mailing industry – and for businesses planning their next direct mail campaign.
Prices are dependent on mailing volume, specification and postal service eligibility.
Request a quote here – https://www.selectabase.co.uk/services/create-and-post/
