Economic affairs minister Dirk Beljaarts has retracted a decision to allow Dutch postal service PostNL to take two days rather than one to deliver letters, he told MPs following a debate on Wednesday.

A large majority of MPs opposed the plan saying a longer delivery time did not offer a solution to the problem of an unreliable service. MPs also criticised the minister for being too lenient with the postal service.

Beljaarts said his decision had not been final but warned that not acting now would have consequences. “I am not deaf to your concerns. I will not go ahead with the proposal and that is a disappointment,” he told MPs.

PostNL, which is a listed company, had called for the introduction of longer delivery times earlier this year. The change, which was scheduled for 2026, would have meant a letter posted on Wednesday could be delivered on Friday and would still count as being on time.

The company is required by law to ensure a network of letter boxes emptied five days a week and to deliver post five days a week, six days a week for deliveries of medicine and death notices. It is also required to ensure 95% of domestic post is delivered the next day.

But the 95% delivery target has not been achieved since 2019. In 2023 one in five letters arrived too late with PostNL blaming a lack of staff.

PostNL said in a reaction it is disappointed at the minister’s u-turn and said that business mail, which is not part of the one-day delivery rule, will continue to take longer to arrive.

The firm had also asked for more government support to try to meet delivery targets but that was refused by the minister.

NSC MP Femke Zeedijk said she did not believe PostNL qualifies for state support. The company is making a profit on letters and packages, she said, and shareholders received some €330 million in dividends in 2022. “How can it be that just a year on from this a company comes begging for money from the state?” she asked.