High Street Bank Closures

Darren Paffey Excerpts

Wednesday 26th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[James Murray]

The hon. Gentleman’s point relates to transport links and the accessibility of banking hubs. It links well to the comment from my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Gareth Snell), which is that a banking hub or banking service on its own might need further infrastructure around it to ensure that people can get there. I hope to address that briefly in just a moment.

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury is working closely with the industry to roll out 350 banking hubs—as my hon. Friend the Member for Blyth and Ashington mentioned—by the end of this Parliament. Banking hubs allow people and businesses to withdraw and deposit cash, deposit cheques, pay bills and make balance inquiries. Importantly, they also contain rooms where customers can see community bankers to carry out wider banking services, such as registering a bereavement or getting help with changing a PIN. The Government are committed to working with the industry to ensure that banking hubs meet customers’ needs.

Following rules laid out for the Financial Conduct Authority, the roll-out of banking hubs is determined in accordance with legislation. When a bank announces the closure of a branch or a material change of cash access, an assessment will be carried out by Link, which we have heard hon. Members refer to today and is the operator of the UK’s largest ATM network. That is an impartial assessment of a community’s access-to-cash needs. Where Link recommends a banking hub, Cash Access UK, a not-for-profit company funded by major UK banks, will provide it. The assessments take into account criteria such as population size, the number of small businesses, and levels of vulnerability. They also consider the distance to the nearest bank branch and the cost and travel time to get there on public transport. Importantly, where the announcement of a bank closure triggers an assessment, the branch cannot close until recommended services have been installed. Any member of the public—including Members of this House—can request an access-to-cash review directly, through the Link website.

My hon. Friend the Member for Blyth and Ashington and others have put on record their concerns about the criteria that Link uses to make the assessments. Those concerns are on record through this debate. Any decisions on changes to Link’s assessment criteria are a matter for Link, the financial services sector and the FCA, which oversees the access-to-cash regime. The FCA is required by law to keep its rules under review. It monitors the impact of those rules on an ongoing basis to ensure that they deliver the right outcomes for businesses and consumers.

[Darren Paffey (Southampton Itchen) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Minister for giving way and my hon. Friend the Member for Blyth and Ashington (Ian Lavery) for securing the debate. On the point about the criteria, it is difficult to match some of what we know about our own constituencies with some of the criteria that Link deals with, which seem restrictive. Does the Minister agree that the Government have set a target of opening banking hubs, but the Link criteria are not meeting community needs and need to change? Does he agree that that is a priority?

[James Murray]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. As I set out, the Government have committed to 350 banking hubs in the course of the Parliament, but any changes to Link’s assessment criteria are a matter for Link, the financial services sector and the FCA, under the rules set out in legislation.

I will also point to the fact that customers have other options to access everyday banking and cash services. In particular, the Post Office deserves a mention for its extensive presence on the country’s high streets, which ensures that 99% of the UK population live within 3 miles of a post office. Through the Post Office banking framework, 99% of personal banking and 95% of business banking customers can access vital cash withdrawal and deposit facilities at 11,500 post office branches across the country.

We talked a lot about some of the issues with accessing banking services and banking hubs when they are open. It is important to note that in the autumn Budget, we announced £1 billion of investment in support of bus services, which will be crucial in connecting rural areas and small towns and helping people to get to their nearest banking services. In recognition of the fact that each community has individual needs, we have introduced the Bus Services Bill, which will put power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders. We continue to take action to make sure that high streets and communities across the country can realise their full economic potential.

I again thank my hon. Friend the Member for Blyth and Ashington for securing this important debate. I welcome the support from him and other hon. Members for the Government’s important work to ensure access to banking for all, and to support our commitment to unlocking the full potential of high streets across the country.

Question put and agreed to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Darren Paffey Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Darren Jones]

This Government’s commitment to economic growth will improve living standards for people right across the country. I refer the hon. Member to my previous answer and suggest that his party might want to apologise before trying to lecture this Government on the change that we are delivering.

[Darren Paffey (Southampton Itchen) (Lab)]

10. What steps she is taking to increase long-term investment in the economy.

[Alan Gemmell (Central Ayrshire) (Lab)]

11. What steps she is taking to increase long-term investment in the economy.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Rachel Reeves)]

We have brought stability back to the economy, which is the foundation for attracting investment and is vital to our growth mission. We have already launched the national wealth fund, which will mobilise over £70 billion of private investment with an expanded remit for the Office for Investment overseen by the Minister for investment. In October, we welcomed global investors from around the world to London for the international investment summit, where we were able to announce a record-breaking £63 billion of private sector investment into our economy.

[Darren Paffey]

I have been meeting a number of maritime companies in and around the port of Southampton, and they tell me that the single biggest key to unlocking further investment would be the expansion of the national grid to our city. What steps is the Chancellor taking to secure that vital investment, and will she meet me and local industry leaders to discuss how this would boost our local and national economy?

[Rachel Reeves]

It was a pleasure to go to my hon. Friend’s constituency in June to see the port and the wealth creation and jobs that it is bringing to Southampton. As I set out in the autumn Budget, as well as focusing on the national wealth fund’s capital investment in ports, we are committed to accelerating grid connections and ensuring that new network infrastructure is built at pace to unlock investment and growth opportunities. We are particularly focused on driving network build, including by completing the strategic planning of the energy system needed for 2030, to ensure that projects such as those my hon. Friend has mentioned in Southampton make the progress that they need to.

VAT: Independent Schools

Darren Paffey Excerpts

Tuesday 8th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Darren Paffey (Southampton Itchen) (Lab)]

I welcome the opportunity to speak about what it means to have a Government who will not just talk about opportunity, but take action to bring opportunity, aspiration and ambition to not just 7% of the population but 100% of our children and young people.

Like my hon. Friends, I note that the Opposition motion expresses the Conservatives’ “regret” over this policy. Do they not regret 14 years of underfunding our state schools? Do they not regret slashing opportunity by shutting Sure Start centres lock, stock and barrel? Do they not regret growing child poverty on their watch? Do they not regret that more Members on their Benches have turned out today to defend tax exemptions than did to defend their record on the NHS last night?

I am proud to stand here today because this is a Government who are putting ambition and opportunity front and centre in our missions. Our principle—that everyone growing up in my constituency of Southampton Itchen should have the opportunity to get the best start in life, to do well, to be ambitious and to be supported to fulfil their dreams—should not simply be the preserve of children in independent schools. Every parent wants the best for their children, whichever school they choose.

I have had parents who have taken the decision to pay for private education for their children get in touch with very real concerns, which I acknowledge—that they are not all the super-rich, and that not all independent schools are like the Etons and Harrows of the world. But claims of an exodus from private schools to state schools are, I am afraid, completely unfounded. Opposition Members should be listening to the chief executive of the Independent Schools Association, representing less prestigious, less expensive schools, who has talked about how many might benefit from a “trading down”, which means more students and more income to their schools.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Connor Naismith) noted, there have been above-inflation price increases for those schools year on year, and there has been no diminishing of student numbers. One small independent school that many children in my constituency attend said it has already made plans. It has planned for business and they will pass just 4% on to school fees. So this is not about restricting parents’ choice; it is not anti-private school. It is about fairness, and it is a question of priorities. Improving all our state schools to benefit everyone costs money, and that is why we cannot justify these tax breaks any more.

I wonder, reading this tone-deaf motion from the Opposition, what they would say to constituents in Southampton, where many schools have had to ask for donations, and where the teachers they do not think deserved a pay rise have been struggling. We make this choice with no apology.