Almost half of banks closed in last ten years
BRANCHES IN KIRKLEES GO FROM 75 TO 40 IN DECADE
KIRKLEES has lost nearly half of its bank and building society branches in the past decade.
In 2010 the area had around 75 branches, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
By last year, that had fallen to around 40 – a 47 per cent fall.
The numbers include a fall in bank branches from around 60 to around 30, while the number of building society branches has dropped from around 15 to around 10.
In Calderdale, the number of branches has fallen by 30pc from around 50 to around 35.
The figures for numbers of branches come from the Annual Business Count, and are rounded to the nearest five for each area.
Across the UK, the number of bank and building society branches has dropped by 39pc in a decade, from 16,955 in 2010 to 10,405 in 2019.
Small Kirklees towns such as Holmfirth and Mirfield are the worst hit.
Lloyds Bank in Holmfirth is due to close on April 29 following the loss of HSBC and Santander in recent years. When Lloyds goes it will leave only Barclays, which only opens three days a week.
In Mirfield, the Halifax is the last bank in town but doesn’t have a counter service. Since 2011 HSBC, Barclays and the NatWest have all closed – along with the Yorkshire Building Society.
People are now banking online. ONS figures show nearly three quarters of people aged 16 and over (73pc) had recently used online banking services last year, up from 55pc in 2015.
While this included 91pc of those aged 18 to 24, and 88pc of those aged 25 to 44, it also included half (51pc) of 65to 74-year-olds, 38pc of those aged 75 to 79, and 18pc of those aged 80 and over.
For the oldest age groups, rates of usage have doubled over the past five years. Footfall in branches has also fallen. UK Finance told a Parliamentary inquiry into financial inclusion last year that it was down by a quarter since 2012.
Closures are likely to continue, according to a review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which found banks are doing so in response to changing technology and customer behaviour, with closures helping them to make cost savings.
As networks shrink, they tend to focus on retaining branches in key locations or experimenting with different ways to deliver services.
Under the Access to Banking Standard, introduced in 2015, banks have to engage with customers and communities before a planned closure, and offer alternative ways to bank when a branch closes.
FCA research found around 10pc of the rural population lived at least 10 miles away from their nearest branch in 2017 and that some people, especially the over 60s, do not move to mobile banking when their branch closes.
It said this may lead to financial exclusion of some groups, adding the provision of branch services by the Post Office may help address this impact, but not for all consumers.
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