Is your city about to get a banking hub? Jeremy Hunt’s lastly has

Small companies in Haslemere are hoping that the welcome return of excessive avenue banking providers to their Surrey city will mark a surge of their fortunes. 

A brand new-style hub – a shared department which clients of all the main banks can use – was launched simply over per week in the past by native MP, Jeremy Hunt.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer took day out to thank The Mail on Sunday for its assist in Haslemere getting a hub. Before chopping the tape to open it, he shook my hand warmly and informed me: ‘Thank you. You played your part in this.’

Meeting of minds: Jeff Prestridge and Jeremy Hunt 

The Mail on Sunday has tirelessly campaigned over a few years for neighborhood banks to turn into a function of excessive streets up and down the nation. 

Three months in the past, I visited Haslemere which misplaced its final financial institution two years in the past and requested a easy query: ‘If you can’t discover a financial institution in Jeremy Hunt’s affluent yard, then the place are you able to?’

The hub, within the outdated Lloyds financial institution department, will allow clients of all the primary banks – private, small companies and charities – to do primary banking equivalent to deposit and withdraw money.

Most can even have the ability to see a consultant from their very own financial institution on a delegated day of the week in the event that they want recommendation or assist.

‘It’s nice information,’ stated Emma Ganderton, proprietor of antiques store Notte Della Villa, once I revisited the city 9 days in the past to watch Mr Hunt chopping the blue ribbon with an enormous pair of scissors. 

From her store, she will see folks visiting the hub and utilizing the exterior ATM.

Hub: A brand new-style hub was launched simply over per week in the past by native MP, Jeremy Hunt

Still reeling from the sudden look of movie star and former footballer Vinnie Jones in her store (he didn’t purchase something), Emma stated the hub is a giant increase for companies like hers that generate plenty of money gross sales.

‘I now have a bank that I can walk to rather than have to get in a car to visit,’ she stated. ‘It’s additionally introduced much more footfall to my finish of city and extra folks coming into my store to browse and purchase items. So, I’m successful on two fronts.’

The Haslemere hub is one in every of 31 which have up to now been launched into cities beforehand left bankless by the withdrawal of all the large banks and constructing societies.

Boost: The Mail on Sunday has tirelessly campaigned over a few years for neighborhood banks to turn into a function of excessive streets

An additional 70 are already scheduled to open subsequent yr – and extra are doubtless as financial institution department closures proceed apace. 

John Howells, boss of money machine community Link, believes 1,000 hubs might be in place by 2028 as they change conventional branches in all bar metropolis places. 

Link presently decides whether or not a city dropping its final financial institution ought to have a substitute hub or a extra automated banking service equivalent to an ATM or money deposit facility.

Although different specialists consider a smaller whole – between 350 and 600 – is extra real looking, new guidelines making certain continued entry to private banking providers, set to be launched subsequent yr by the City regulator, ought to stimulate the opening of extra hubs.

Gareth Oakley is chief government of Cash Access UK, the organisation liable for getting hubs off the bottom. He says there stays a giant want for face-to-face banking on excessive streets. 

‘If you look at countries like Sweden where cash has very much been replaced by mobile banking, a personal banking service is still demanded by the public,’ says Oakley. ‘I think we will see hubs on our high streets for at least another ten years. If any hubs were shut before then, I think there would be a fierce political backlash.’

Cash Access UK, funded by the large banks, has been criticised for the gradual roll-out of hubs, however Oakley says its capacity to open them is proscribed by the provision of appropriate premises and the reactive approach it’s compelled to work. 

‘We can’t begin in search of appropriate premises till a hub has been really useful by Link,’ he says. ‘It’s not just like the operator of a nationwide espresso store chain that may consistently scout the nation for engaging places.’

Derek French has been campaigning in tandem with The Mail on Sunday on the necessity for neighborhood banks because the Nineteen Nineties. He believes 600 ‘personal’ banking hubs might now get off the bottom, supplemented by 400 money deposit providers (important for small companies).

‘I’m happy {that a} hub has gone into Haslemere,’ he says. ‘It’s a city I labored in for some time as a reduction cashier within the early Sixties for a financial institution that turned a part of NatWest. It’s affluent, has a vibrant excessive avenue and desires entry to private banking providers.’

It’s a view shared by most of the companies I visited. Peter Jones owns the cavernous Sports Locker store, a couple of properties away from the hub, promoting the whole lot from trainers via to skiwear.

When I spoke to Jones in late August, he couldn’t perceive why all of the banks – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest – had shut up store in addition to the close by native submit workplace. He is now happier that the hub is up and working. 

He stated: ‘I’m utilizing it to pay in money takings and there are plenty of aged residents who will use it.’

Sarah Patrick, supervisor of charity store The Tantrum Trust, additionally welcomes the hub as a result of plenty of the store’s takings are in money. 

She stated: ‘We used to bank with Lloyds so its closure in November 2021 was a real pain. But now we’ve received a banking facility again on the town that may assist each us and our clients.’

[email protected]