In January I was informed by Barclays that they were closing their branch in Lancaster, and I wrote to them to make clear in the strongest terms how concerned I and Barclays customers across the district were about this, and I encouraged them to change their mind. This is something that has generated a lot of attention online and about which I have received many emails.

I have now received an update from Barclays. Sadly, despite the strength of feeling on this, they have not backed down on their plans to close the branch on 25 April 2024 – this is deeply disappointing. They do, at least, provide the details I requested on their replacement face-to-face service, which I urged them to make as comprehensive as possible:

“Following our correspondence regarding the Lancaster branch closure, I’m writing to let you know our face to face replace service for customers will launch on Monday 29^th April 2024.

“I’m pleased to confirm that Barclays colleagues will be available at The Royal Kings Arms Hotel, 75, Market Street, Lancaster, and our operational hours will be Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 10.00am to 4.30pm, and Saturdays 11.00am – 1.30pm then 2.00pm to 4.30pm. We will be offering face to face financial support and education for customers, without the need to travel.   

“Customers visiting us at the Royal Kings Arms Hotel will be able to access a wide range of services including assistance with everyday finances and money management (such as helping customers opening accounts, updating customer details, or paying bills), free digital skills workshops and fraud and scams awareness events for the community.  As the replace service is a cashless site, everyday banking transactions, including cash deposits and withdrawals, will need to be completed at a local Post Office.

“Barclays is committed to deploying a range of more flexible ways that customers can physically interact with the bank.  This now includes over 330 pop-up banking sites located in town and city centres in spaces such as community centres, libraries, and business hubs where it offers drop in and pre-booked appointments.”

I am glad that the new service will be open 6 days each week (though I fear that this may easily reduce in future), but it is clear that this is not an adequate replacement for a proper branch. It will be a ‘cashless’ site which will only provide advice, account services and awareness events, while everyday banking transactions can be carried out at the Post Office – however anyone who uses a Post Office regularly knows that this can be easier said than done, as the Post Office is increasingly being relied upon to plug the gap when services like these disappear from our high streets, making their branches ever busier while, at the same time, many of these branches are themselves being closed or cut back.

While I am disappointed, regrettably I am not surprised. The number of bank and building society branches in the UK is now less than half what it was in 2015, with Barclays closing the most branches. While the banking lobby argues that cash is now ‘only’ used for 14% of all payments so is increasingly unimportant, but this still represents a significant amount of money changing hands and a great many people relying on cash to go about their daily life. While everyday banking practices have undoubtedly changed, I remain of the belief that physical bank branches have an important role to play in our communities, serving small businesses, customers who are unable to use digital services, or cash-related banking that is more complex than ‘everyday banking transactions’.

This is a growing problem, and one that Labour understands. Last November, Rachel Reeves announced a plan to protect people’s access to cash and physical banking. If elected, Labour would oversee the creation of at least 350 extra ‘banking hubs’ on local high streets, a much more appropriate replacement for bank branches which allow customers from a variety of banks to perform a fuller range of services compared to regular Post Offices. Labour will also introduce new powers to allow the Financial Conduct Authority to prevent bank closures which would result in ‘banking deserts’ where there is no local access to face-physical banking service – powers the Conservatives have previously opposed.

This at least represents some hope on the horizon for this issue, even while sadly poor decisions continue to be made in the short term. While I may not be successful in every case, I will continue to speak out to defend our local services at every opportunity and I am grateful to everyone who got in touch to support me on this.