Banking Hubs

Debate between Lord Anderson of Swansea and Baroness Vere of Norbiton

Monday 11th December 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

I recognise what the noble Baroness is saying. The criteria currently used to assess whether a community needs a banking hub are set out in consultation with the financial services sector; that is part of the current voluntary arrangement. I point the noble Baroness to the FCA consultation, because the criteria to be set out going forward are far more detailed and focus on the needs of not only local communities but SMEs. The consultation will also look at seasonal fluctuations in the need for cash access and the ability of SMEs to get coins and notes. The FCA is going further than the current voluntary arrangements.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

As with rural bus services, the loss of banking facilities bears most heavily on the elderly. Does the Minister agree with the principle that the last facility in a community should not be lost until a hub is established?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

I agree with that in principle, and that is what the FCA set out in its consultation. If the assessment is that a community needs services, it will be beholden upon the designated firms—the banks—to put an alternative service in place before the last bank is closed, or alternative services will need to be put in place within three months if the existing service had somehow disappeared many months or years beforehand and an assessment was made that the community was lacking access to cash.

Railway Stations: Ticket Office Closures

Debate between Lord Anderson of Swansea and Baroness Vere of Norbiton

Wednesday 20th September 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

The independent passenger bodies will publish their responses to each of the train operating companies’ proposals.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

Will the people on the platform be prepared to help the elderly and the disabled get their tickets if tickets offices do not exist?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

That is the whole point: they will be more than happy to do so. We want to have multi-skilled individuals working for the railways such that they can help all sorts of passengers with a varying range of needs.

Transport: South Wales

Debate between Lord Anderson of Swansea and Baroness Vere of Norbiton

Thursday 2nd February 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

As the Chancellor has made clear, HS2 will go to central London.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

Could the Minister have a quiet word with her noble friend Lord Davies of Gower about the delays on the line from Swansea to London? Twice in the past three weeks, I have been delayed for over an hour. Once there was some mitigation as there were floods, but on the last occasion the replacement bus broke down and we were left with a very long delay. Surely that needs to be looked at as a priority by the new rail board. Is there any prospect of improving that line and of looking again at electrification?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

As I said, services are run by Transport for Wales, but the new Wales rail board will consider matters in the round. Sometimes flooding occurs and replacement bus services can indeed break down, but it is important that we improve services across south Wales. The £2.7 million kicks off what could be very significant investment: there would be five new stations, and improvements between west Wales and Bristol Temple Meads will be looked at.

Holyhead

Debate between Lord Anderson of Swansea and Baroness Vere of Norbiton

Monday 2nd March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton]

As the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, will know, I cannot possibly answer that question at this time because those sorts of things are still being finalised. However, we have been talking about this for a very long time now. An enormous amount of planning has already gone on, particularly around the previous exit date of 31 October. The Border Delivery Group has been up and running for a long time and we are working with local partners to understand what needs to be done. We have already looked at any potential disruption and what could be done to mitigate it—work is well under way.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords, is the noble Baroness confident that the new infrastructure at Holyhead will be completed by the end of this year?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton]

In terms of border checks, I hope so because as I said in a previous answer, the best-prepared ports will have a competitive advantage. I very much hope that Holyhead will be at the forefront.