Royal Mail is to be allowed to scale back second-class letter deliveries under a shake-up by regulator Ofcom.
Ofcom on Thursday proposed cutting the cheaper class of postal delivery to alternate weekdays and removing Saturday rounds.
Some £250 million to £425 million could be saved a year through the changes, Ofcom said.
Royal Mail, which is part of International Distribution Services PLC (LSE:IDS), would still be required to deliver first-class mail six days a week and keep a cap on second-class stamps.
“The world has changed,” Ofcom communications director Natalie Black said, “we’re sending a third of the letters we were 20 years ago”.
She added: “We need to reform the postal service to protect its future and ensure it delivers for the whole of the UK.”
Royal Mail parent International Distribution Services is on the brink of a £3.6 billion takeover by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky’s EP Group.
Last month, EP Group was given conditional approval for the bid under the National Security and Investment Act.