Banking Competition

Debate between Teresa Pearce and Cathy Jamieson

Thursday 12th July 2012 Westminster Hall

[Teresa Pearce (Erith and Thamesmead) (Lab)]

Some of the points that I was going to make have already been raised by my fellow member of the Treasury Committee, the hon. Member for South Northamptonshire (Andrea Leadsom). I was glad to add my support to the application for the debate, because it is important to my constituents.

I represent Thamesmead and Erith. Thamesmead is an estate built by the Greater London council in the 1960s. There are 45,000 people living there and not a single bank in the whole of Thamesmead. I have met all the major banks to ask whether they would be wiling to open a branch or have a mobile bank—anything, really—but they have all said no because it would not be economic for them. They have no thought for the customers there—mainly basic bank account holders, some of whom cannot even use one of the few ATMs there. People in my constituency have to take two bus rides to draw their own hard-earned money out of an ATM without incurring a charge. The service is simply not good enough.

Markets are supposed to operate on the principle of the virtuous circle. I doubt whether anybody in the country at the moment thinks that that applies to the banking market. Well-informed consumers are supposed to drive a competitive business to deliver what people want, and that is simply not happening in my area or many other areas. Banks are not delivering what my local small businesses want or what my local bank account holders want—they are just not delivering at all.

The market is supposed to respond to customer need and customer power, but at the moment, consumers do not seem to have any real choice or power. When people come to me and say that they have a problem with their bank, and I ask if they have tried another bank, they say, “They all seem to be owned by each other; what difference will it make?” There is no consumer choice. It is a market, but not a proper market, because it does not operate as any other market would.

[Cathy Jamieson]

I know that my hon. Friend cares passionately about people’s exclusion from financial services. Would she agree that part of the problem is that it is not easy for people who are in debt or do not have high incomes to switch? Going to another bank is fine if they have money, but it is not easy at all if they are trying to pay off an overdraft or loan.

State Pension Age (Women)

Debate between Teresa Pearce and Cathy Jamieson

Wednesday 11th May 2011 Westminster Hall

[Teresa Pearce]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I agree. As I said, it is the unexpectedness of the change that is the problem. The women affected have worked all their lives and paid into the system, expecting something in return. They feel that they have done their bit, but they are not getting what they agreed to in the first place.

[Cathy Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab/Co-op)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the situation is made more difficult because many of the women have been on low incomes and have not been able to make savings in other ways? Although they may have done the right thing and planned, they are now hit by this double whammy.

[Teresa Pearce]

I agree. These women have been unable to plan for this change. Already, their pension age was further away than that of the previous generation and now it is being pushed further away again. It seems that the nearer they get, the further away it goes.