Tag: banking

Bishop of St Albans takes part in debate on access to banking for small businesses

The Bishop of St Albans spoke in a grand committee debate on access to banking for small businesses on 1st May 2025, with a particular focus on the needs of rural businesses and communities:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, not only for securing this debate but for an interesting and informative introduction setting out a number of important matters. I declare my interests: until two weeks ago, I was president of the Rural Coalition, which is relevant to this speech; I am also a vice-president of the Local Government Association.

I will focus my remarks specifically on the challenges for small businesses in rural areas. They hold significant potential for economic growth and are critical for our economy, but they face distinct challenges around access to banking and financial services compared to urban areas. There are over 500,000 businesses registered in rural areas, and the rural economy employs around 3.8 million people, so it is important that this economy and the small businesses that make up part of it have access to the services that they need to thrive and to contribute to the Government’s growth mission.

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Bishop of Newcastle leads debate on impact of rural bank closures

The Bishop of Newcastle led a debate on the impact of bank closures on rural communities on 13th February 2025, raising issues of financial exclusion:

The Lord Bishop of Newcastle: To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of bank closures in the past decade and the impact on people in rural communities.

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who are taking part in this short debate and look forward to listening to each of the contributions that they will bring. While this debate has its focus on diverse rural communities, I know that the issue before us is not solely rural.

Last month, Lloyds Banking Group announced that it will be close 136 bank branches across the country. The Tyne valley in Northumberland will see another three branches close their doors—two in Hexham and one in Prudhoe—meaning that customers in Hexham will need to travel over 15 miles to Consett to visit their nearest Lloyds branch.

Lloyds’ announcement comes after a decade of decline in the number of high street banks. Figures from Which? show that 6,266 bank branches have closed across the UK over the past 10 years, representing 63% of branches open at the start of 2015. If bank branches continue closing at such a rate, we face living in a society where those unable to bank digitally are financially excluded.

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Bishop of St Albans asks about access to bank accounts and services for small businesses

The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 5th February 2024:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government:

  • what assessment they have made of the impact on small businesses in rural areas of having their bank accounts frozen or closed entirely.
  • what assessment they have made of the impact on small businesses of many banks, including HSBC, NatWest and Santander, not allowing them to open accounts.
  • what plans they have to ensure that banks do not unfairly refuse applications to small businesses to open accounts, given that there is no requirement currently to tell a customer why they have been turned down.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con, Treasury): The Government recognises the vital role SMEs play in fuelling economic growth, and it is important they can access the banking services they need.

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Bishop of Norwich speaks on impact of bank closures in rural areas and market towns

The Bishop of Norwich spoke in a debate on closure of high street banks and the need for a national network of banking hubs on 25th January 2024, raising the impact of bank closures on those in rural areas and market towns:

The Lord Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler of Enfield, for this timely debate. I will speak particularly about rural areas and market towns.

The diocese I serve across Norfolk and Waveney is largely a rural one, but it is one where market towns play a key part in peoples’ lives. Historically places of transaction, they contribute to the warp and weft of community life, especially with their rural hinterland. It is no accident that, in Norfolk, they are fairly evenly spread out across the county, having developed so that livestock could be driven to them for sale and the bonds of extended familial friendship and trust strengthened.

From my internet searching, I estimate that we lost at least 12 bank branches in Norfolk last year. The market town of Wymondham saw the closure of NatWest, HSBC and Barclays within 12 months. The parish church’s treasurer now has a 26-mile round trip to bank the cash collection and cheques. Banks are vital for small rural businesses and charities that deal with cash. Yet, as we have heard, closures are accelerating, and this seems to be a pattern across the UK.

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Bishop of Durham asks about banking in the north-east of England

The Bishop of Durham asked a question on the rate of new banking hubs, and the effects of the diminishing number of post offices in the north-east of England, during a debate on bank branch closures and the opening of new hubs on 11th December 2023:

The Lord Bishop of Durham asked: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that last answer. However, in the north-east, only one banking hub has been opened this year and there is a diminishing number of post offices, so it is quite hard to see how the post office network is actually helping in the north-east.

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Bishop of St Albans asks about whistleblowing in the Civil Service & the Bank of England

The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 21st June 2023:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government how many cases of whistleblowing were (1) reported, and (2) investigated, by the Civil Service in (a) 2020, (b) 2021, (c) 2022, and (d) 2023 to date.

Baroness Neville Rolfe (Con): I refer the Noble Lord to my previous answers – HL7792 and HL8058 – provided in May 2023.

Hansard

The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government how many instances of whistleblowing there were to the Prudential Regulation Authority in each of the past four years.

Baroness Penn (Con): I refer the Noble Lord to my answer HL8060 on 5th June.

Hansard

Financial Services and Markets Bill: Archbishop of Canterbury supports effort to prevent changes that would go against Banking Standards Commission Report

On 13th June 2023, the House of Lords debated the Financial Services & Markets Bill in the third day of the report stage. During the debate, the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke in support of an amendment to the bill tabled by Baroness Kramer that would “prevent the Government from making substantive changes to the policy on ring-fencing and SMCR by statutory instrument, and would prevent policy from being amended in a way that departs from the report from the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards.”

The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, I have joined the noble Baroness in supporting her Amendment 106, as I did her two amendments on this topic in Committee. This amendment seeks to prevent change which goes against the two years of work of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, which looked in detail at both issues and produced its final report, Changing Banking for Good, 10 years ago. I declare an interest: I sat on the commission along with the noble Baroness.

As I said in Committee on 21 March, the underlying motivation of this amendment is to ask us not to forget the hard lessons learned after the 2008-09 financial crash, for which the whole country, especially the poorest, paid, then and to this day. Recent events show that the memory in the markets is strong, even if it is not in the Government. Alarm spreads easily.

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Votes: Financial Services & Markets Bill

On 13th June 2023, the House of Lords debated the Financial Services & Markets Bill in its third day of the report stage. Votes were held on two amendments to the bill, in which the Archbishop of Canterbury took part.

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Bishop of Durham asks about support for building societies

The Bishop of Durham asked a question on support for local building societies on 27th April 2023, during a debate on bank closures:

The Lord Bishop of Durham: In my local town of Bishop Auckland, Newcastle Building Society and Darlington Building Society have moved on to the high street as banks have moved off it. Will the Minister commend building societies for their commitment to local communities and to making things accessible to them, and will she encourage further work on that?

Baroness Penn (Con, Treasury): I absolutely commend building societies and all businesses that have a commitment to local communities and are thinking about how they can make their services as accessible as possible. There are many different routes to ensuring accessibility. We should focus on the outcome for the customer and embrace the different routes that this can be delivered by.

Hansard

Bishop of St Albans asks about HSBC’s purchase of Silicon Valley Bank

The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 29th March 2023:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Penn on 14 March (HL Deb col 1282), what exemptions to the Banking Act 2009 they granted to HSBC as part of its purchase of Silicon Valley Bank.

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