End of the road for 30 offices

Royal Bank of Scotland has reported a new £7bn loss – its ninth consecutive year deep in the red – which has taken its total losses since the 2008 financial crash to more than £58bn.

Last month the bank said it would not return to profit until 2018 and announced a £2bn cost-cutting plan, resulting in job losses and branch closures to put the bank back in the black.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, staff numbers at RBS have fallen from 170,000 to 80,000.

This week it confirmed a further 30 RBS branches would close across Scotland, with 176 full-time posts affected.

The union Unite said RBS was“turning its back on the communities that have been the foundation of their business for generations”.

In addition to the Scottish closures, RBS announced it would shut 128 NatWest branches.

A total of about 770 staff across the UK will be affected but hundreds of workers will be redeployed, the bank said.