Lloyds and Halifax to shut 40 bank branches

LLOYDS and Halifax have announced a further 40 branches are to close in the next six months, delivering another blow to easy access to cash and in-store banking services across the country.

A total of 64 UK bank closures have been announced in less than a fortnight, with Barclays and TSB also shutting their doors on several high streets.

Critics say new laws to protect cash access cannot come soon enough, as local banking presence continues to be slashed across the UK.

Lloyds Banking Group said 22 Lloyds sites are to close, as well as 18 Halifax branches, between April and June this year. The corporation said that customers had been visiting their local banks much less over the past five years, and said footfall had fallen by around 60pc on average.

However, Nationwide Building Society recently revealed that cash use increased last year for the first time in over a decade, with the amount of withdrawals from ATMS up 19pc in 2022 compared with the previous year.

Once all announced clo- sures from Lloyds Banking Group have taken place, there will be just 623 Lloyds and 489 Halifax branches remaining across the coun- try. The corporation also includes the Bank of Scotland, which has 165 branches.

TSB announced nine store closures on Tuesday, and Barclays said on 13 January that 15 branches were to shut.

All but one of the branches in the latest round of closures by Lloyds Banking Group are located in England, with one Halifax branch in Bangor, Gwynedd, closing in April.

Some of the Lloyds branches that are to shut include those in Chingford, east London; Aintree in Liverpool; and Newport, Shropshire. The company said there would be no job losses as a result of the closures.

A Lloyds Banking Group spokesman said: “Branches play an important part in our strategy but we need to have them in the right places, where they are well used.”