The cost of a first-class stamp is to increase by 2p to 34p from next April, the Royal Mail has announced.

A second-class stamp will increase by 1p to 24p. It will be the second increase in a year following last April's rise of 2p in the price of both stamps. The cost of posting larger first-class letters will increase by 4p to 48p, while bigger second-class items will increase by 3p to 40p.

Lorna Clarkson, Royal Mail's director of commercial policy and pricing, said: "Now that the UK mail market is open to full competition, it is essential that Royal Mail's prices more closely reflect the true cost of collecting, sorting and delivering around 80 million items of mail a day to 27 million addresses across the UK.

"The price of a first-class stamp in the UK remains lower than almost any other European country."