Asked by: Gen Kitchen (Labour - Wellingborough and Rushden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of bank closures on access to (a) cash and (b) in-person services in Wellingborough constituency.
Answered by Bim Afolami
Decisions to open or close a branch are commercial and the Government does not make assessments of these closure decisions. Nonetheless, it is imperative that banks and building societies recognise the needs of all their customers, including those who need to use cash or in-person services. The Government is monitoring the wider situation closely.
The Government legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to introduce a new legislative framework to protect access to cash. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must seek to ensure that there is reasonable provision of free withdrawal and deposit facilities in relation to personal current accounts. Upon the closure of a core cash service such as a bank branch, LINK assesses the community’s access to cash needs. If additional cash services are needed, industry will provide a shared solution such as a Banking Hub.
Guidance from the FCA sets out its expectation of firms when they are deciding to reduce their physical branches or the number of free-to-use ATMs. The FCA’s guidance is clear that firms are expected to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs, and put in place alternatives, where this is reasonable. Alternative options to access everyday banking services can be via telephone banking, through digital means such as mobile or online banking and via the Post Office or Banking Hubs.
UK Finance have recently confirmed 225 Banking Hubs will be announced by the end of 2024, up from the 130 locations currently confirmed. Furthermore, following my recent discussions with the UK high street banks, participating firms have also committed to improving Hubs by standardising the services available between firms, ensuring that customers will not require their own digital device to bank, trialling a ‘customer liaison service’ and trialling Saturday openings.
Asked by: Gen Kitchen (Labour - Wellingborough and Rushden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the number of bank branches that have closed in (a) Wellingborough constituency and (b) Northamptonshire in each year since 2010.
Answered by Bim Afolami
Decisions to open or close a branch are commercial and the Government does not make assessments of these closure decisions. Nonetheless, it is imperative that banks and building societies recognise the needs of all their customers, including those who need to use cash or in-person services. The Government is monitoring the wider situation closely.
The Government legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to introduce a new legislative framework to protect access to cash. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must seek to ensure that there is reasonable provision of free withdrawal and deposit facilities in relation to personal current accounts. Upon the closure of a core cash service such as a bank branch, LINK assesses the community’s access to cash needs. If additional cash services are needed, industry will provide a shared solution such as a Banking Hub.
Guidance from the FCA sets out its expectation of firms when they are deciding to reduce their physical branches or the number of free-to-use ATMs. The FCA’s guidance is clear that firms are expected to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs, and put in place alternatives, where this is reasonable. Alternative options to access everyday banking services can be via telephone banking, through digital means such as mobile or online banking and via the Post Office or Banking Hubs.
UK Finance have recently confirmed 225 Banking Hubs will be announced by the end of 2024, up from the 130 locations currently confirmed. Furthermore, following my recent discussions with the UK high street banks, participating firms have also committed to improving Hubs by standardising the services available between firms, ensuring that customers will not require their own digital device to bank, trialling a ‘customer liaison service’ and trialling Saturday openings.
Asked by: Gen Kitchen (Labour - Wellingborough and Rushden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to help support people on lower incomes in Wellingborough constituency.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Financial Secretary (Treasury)
Over the previous two years, this government has provided support to help households with the cost of living totalling over £90 billion.
For the coming year, the government has increased working age benefits by 6.7%; maintained the triple lock; raised Local Housing Allowance rates with an average gain of £800, extended the Household Support Fund and increased the National Living Wage by 9.8%. Further actions taken by the government in 2024-25 include: a rise in the National Living Wage (NLW) by 9.8% - ending low hourly pay for workers on the NLW, raising Local Housing Allowance to the 30th percentile of market rents, uprating working-age benefits by 6.7%, freezing fuel duty, removing Debt Relief Order fees, and doubling the Budgeting Advance Loan repayment period.
In rural parts of constituencies like Wellingborough, the government is also providing support through the £110m Rural England Prosperity Fund. This is being invested in projects which boost productivity and create rural job opportunities. This includes farm businesses looking to diversify by opening a farm shop, a wedding venue or tourism facilities or improvements to village halls, pubs and other rural hubs for community uses.
Asked by: Gen Kitchen (Labour - Wellingborough and Rushden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of increases in the cost of living on trends in the number of (a) businesses at risk of insolvency and (b) people in debt in Wellingborough constituency; and what fiscal steps he is taking to support these (i) businesses and (ii) people.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Financial Secretary (Treasury)
Over the previous two years, the government has provided support to help households with the cost of living totalling over £90 billion.
To help those on the lowest incomes with debt, at Spring Budget 2024 the government also removed Debt Relief Order fees and doubled the Budgeting Advance Loan repayment period.
The government continues to pursue an ambitious policy agenda to increase growth and productivity across the economy. This includes cuts to National Insurance, a business rates package worth £4.3bn over five years supporting small businesses and the high street, and wider measures supporting SMEs such as actions to encourage prompt payments. The government continues to go further in supporting small businesses, and at Spring Budget announced the raising of the VAT registration threshold to £90,000.
Asked by: Gen Kitchen (Labour - Wellingborough and Rushden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to help ensure free access to cash (a) withdrawal and (b) deposit facilities in Wellingborough constituency.
Answered by Bim Afolami
In recognition that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK, including those in vulnerable circumstances, the government legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to establish a new legislative framework to protect access to cash. This establishes the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the lead regulator for access to cash and provides it with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities. As part of this responsibility, the FCA must also seek to ensure that there is reasonable provision of free withdrawal and deposit facilities in relation to personal current accounts.
Following this legislation, the government published a Cash Access Policy Statement. This set out that the vast majority of people should be no further than 1 mile from access to cash deposit and withdrawal services in predominately urban areas, and no further than 3 miles in predominately rural areas. The FCA is required to have regard to this statement when exercising its access to cash powers.
The FCA recently held a consultation on its proposed regulatory approach: FCA Access to Cash Consultation. The FCA is currently considering feedback and expects to publish its final rules in the third quarter of this year.
Asked by: Gen Kitchen (Labour - Wellingborough and Rushden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in mortgage interest rates on household disposable income in (a) Wellingborough constituency, (b) Northamptonshire and (c) England.
Answered by Bim Afolami
The path to lower interest rates is through low inflation, and the Government is fully committed to supporting the Bank of England get inflation back down to the 2% target, including by keeping borrowing under control.
Inflation reduces real incomes, creates uncertainty, and threatens our growth outlook so it's essential that the Government continues with its efforts to drive it down and not fuel it further. In January 2023, the Prime Minister set out a plan to halve inflation, and that plan has worked.
While the pricing of mortgages is ultimately a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene, the average offered mortgage rates on 2-year and 5-year fixed rates are now lower compared to their peak in Summer 2023. The Government’s Mortgage Charter - in addition to the significant safeguards already in place - is providing support to vulnerable households; and mortgage arrears and repossessions remain low.
Asked by: Gen Kitchen (Labour - Wellingborough and Rushden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many high street businesses in (a) Wellingborough constituency, (b) Northamptonshire and (c) England have closed in each of the last five years; and what plans he has for business rates in the next five years.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Shadow Exchequer Secretary (Treasury)
Detailed information on the closure of high street business is not held in the form requested. Statistics on company insolvency is available here:
The government is aware that the high street faces long-term challenges and is committed to supporting the businesses that make our high streets and town centres successful.
At Autumn Statement 2023, the government announced a package of business rates support worth £4.3 billion over the next five years to support small businesses and the high street, including extending the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) relief scheme at 75 per cent, up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business for 2024-25.
This support builds on the previous temporary 75 per cent RHL and 50 per cent RHL scheme announced at Autumn Budget 2022 and Autumn Statement 2021 respectively, as well as the unprecedented £16 billion of business rates relief provided to the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors throughout the pandemic.
Any future decisions regarding the tax system will be taken in line with the normal Budget process.
Asked by: Gen Kitchen (Labour - Wellingborough and Rushden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what data his Department holds on the number of people in Wellingborough constituency who (a) paid national insurance contributions and (b) earned below £25,000 per year in financial year 2022-23.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Financial Secretary (Treasury)
The information for the tax year 2022 to 2023 is not yet available.
Table 3.15 of HMRC’s Personal Incomes Statistics contains the latest constituency-level income estimates for the tax year 2021 to 2022.
Income and tax by Parliamentary Constituency