JEFF PRESTRIDGE: Campaigner, 84, who introduced banking again to our High Streets

When the Hertfordshire town of Harpenden gets its promised banking hub – a temporary one in the town hall could open before the year is out – it will be largely down to the tireless effort of longstanding community bank campaigner Derek French.

A resident of the town, and a former executive with NatWest, he called for community-style branches (multi-banks within one retail space) long before they came on the scene.

He was campaigning for them back in the late 1990s when banks first started culling their branches. In 2000, I vividly remember Derek tipping me off about Barclays’ decision to shut 172 branches on one single day – a story that we splashed with in Financial Mail on Sunday.

Derek, now 84, saw the writing on the wall for individual branches in towns long before anyone else – and argued for banks to share services under one roof rather than leave communities bankless.

Eventually, the banks and consumer groups took heed of what French was saying, an organisation called Cash Access UK was set up to oversee the one-stop bank revolution, and banking hubs were launched on our high streets. They’re not as comprehensive as Derek would have liked (banking services are pretty basic and access to personal advice is limited) but they are better than no bank at all.

We should have 100 bank hubs up and running before the year is out – with another 70 in the pipeline. But more will be needed as a new wave of branch closures hits the country in the new year –another blow for high streets, already reeling from the National Insurance hikes announced in the Budget. Labour has made a commitment to have 350 hubs in place before 2029.

Derek says the decline of the bank branch is so ferocious that hubs are now coming to towns that most residents would assume are either affluent or big enough to support at least one bank. He calls it the ‘Gail’s moment’.

On Friday, Derek told me: ‘For many, the presence of a Gail’s bakery and coffee shop indicates a town’s affluence. It has a positive impact on local house prices in the same way that the presence of a Waitrose store has. So far, towns with a Gail’s in situ have had no need for a hub because at least one bank remains on the high street.’

But that’s changing. Derek says Harpenden will become the first town with a Gail’s to have a banking hub. Other Gail’s towns, he says, will follow suit as they lose their last bank and gain a hub. Gail’s occupies the premises of the old NatWest branch. ‘There is always a buzz there when I visit,’ says Derek. ‘The vault door is still in place and it’s quite nice to sit and have a coffee in the old strong room.’

Five other banks once graced Harpenden’s streets. Their premises are now homes to a wine shop, an optician’s, a pharmacy, and another coffee shop. The old Barclays’ branch will be turned into a mix of flats and retail units.

Derek says: ‘After having at least one bank in the town since 1887, Harpenden has lost a significant influence on the business and personal lives of its 32,000-strong community. The jury is out on whether the town is better for the loss of all its banks and the gain of a hub, and yet more coffee shops.’

Gail’s is a card-only business. Says it all really.

Why we must unite to back winter fuel payments 

Hats off to union Unite for requesting a judicial review into Rachel Reeves’ inexplicable decision in July to take the

winter fuel payment away from ten million pensioners, many of them financially straitened.

It wants the crass decision overturned – and rightly so.

The annual payment, £200 for pensioners under the age 80 and £300 for those aged 80 and over, would have been paid either this month or next – and come in handy for many of them, given the recent sharp drop in temperature.

Yet only those in receipt of pension credit and some other benefits will now get the payment.

Like some charities (Age UK), the National Pensioners Convention, Baroness Ros Altmann and both the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, Unite campaigned against this cruel decision from the word go.

I even stood among its vociferous members outside the Houses of Parliament in early October to protest against the curtailment of the payment.

So far, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has stood firm. Petitions against the winter fuel payment cut have been ignored, as have passionate letters delivered to Number 11 Downing Street urging a rethink (including one written by my fair hand).

Sharon Graham, Unite’s firebrand boss, says ‘picking the pockets of pensioners is wrong at every level’. She’s dead right and I hope the review forces Ms Reeves to have a rethink.

I bet Labour raise taxes yet again

Are there more tax rises coming? Or was October’s £40 billion Budget tax grab the end of Labour’s tax hit on businesses, charities and our personal wealth?

According to the Chancellor, the answers are respectively ‘no’ and ‘yes’. But the Prime Minister isn’t so sure. Last Wednesday, in the House of Commons, he refused to ‘write the next five years of Budgets’ when challenged by a spiky Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Opposition.

For what it’s worth, I would bet my last pound on Labour jacking up taxes again between now and 2029.

Why? Its recipe for reviving this country’s fortunes – taxing private enterprises to the hilt while pouring billions of pounds into inefficient public services and the pockets of public sector workers – is based on kindergarten economics.

When the wheels fall off, as they surely will, it will be us poor taxpayers who will pick up the bill.

That permanent home on the Algarve is looking more attractive by the day.

A Christmas cash boost

With our attention drifting towards Christmas and presents to get loved ones, don’t rule out gifting money, especially if you think inheritance tax (IHT) may become an issue in the future.

As a result of Rachel Reeves’s horrible Budget at the end of October (‘rebuild?’ Pull the other one), gifting now makes more sense than ever.

This is because a more draconian IHT regime, especially with regard to the inclusion of unused pension funds within the IHT net from 2027, is coming over the hill at a fair rate of knots.

There are various gifting exemptions you can use – take a look at gov.uk/inheritance-tax/gifts – but the one I like is the small gifts one.

This allows you to make gifts to as many children, grandchildren and friends as you wish and can afford. The only stipulation is that the total gifts you make to each individual in the current tax year must not exceed £250.

Just a wee thought before the bells start jingling for Christmas.

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