Rural Dorset suffers ‘disappointment’ with new banking hubs, says MP

The MP for North Dorset urged ministers to use “carrot and stick” methods to encourage banks to maintain their presence in rural areas.

He described “quite a lot of disappointment surrounding” new face-to-face banking hubs set up and owned by high street banks, as a result of the “erroneous conflation of ‘access to cash’ and ‘access to banking services’”.

The Conservative MP told the Commons: “Try and ask an ATM to amend or set up a standing order or direct debit.

“Try, if you’re a small businessman or businesswoman who wants to extend their line of credit or has a question mark over something, try and ask an ATM those questions.”

Mr Hoare went on to urge the government to consider “carrot and stick through tax and other policies to try and nudge them to move at a faster pace” over setting up banking hubs.

He had earlier called for “the rural-proofing of the rubric” which banks use to shut their branches “in the first instance”.

He said: “I remember hearing when a bank on an earlier occasion closed in my constituency telling me, well, of course, their customers if they needed to talk to an actual person, they could of course use their branch in Poole.

“And when I explained they were absolutely right, but that would take two days out of the week because you’d have to get a bus to Poole, book a hotel, stay over and then get the return bus the following day, it did sound a little bit nonsensical.”

Mr Hoare suggested policy-setters are based in the Square Mile – the City of London – and are “not part of a rural community”, adding: “Now you may have a getaway weekend treat which you might sort of, you know, dash off to in your personalised number plate Land Rover or Ranger Rover or something or other and take your food down from Waitrose, and then come back to London on the Sunday – that is not living in a rural area.”

Treasury minister James Murray said in response: “This government understands the importance of face-to-face banking and banking access to local communities and high streets.

“Our objective is to ensure that people and businesses have access to banking services, supporting local communities and local economic growth. Work is well under way on this and we’re working closely with banks to open 350 banking hubs by the end of this Parliament.”

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