‘People facing 2-mile-plus trip for in-person banking’

Local MP Claudia Webbe has hit out at mass closures across the city

A busy city road is set to lose its last remaining bank branch. Lloyds, in Uppingham Road, Rowlatts Hill, will shut on Thursday, November 2.

The branch is located in a busy shopping area of the A47, near North Evington, which used to be home to other banks. The branch’s closure will leave the next closest Lloyds branch in the city centre.

Local MP Claudia Webbe, who has an office a stone’s throw from the closing branch, has hit out at the decision, along with other closures that she said would disproportionately impact the most vulnerable people. She also claimed Lloyds only began to discuss the impact of the closure with locals once it had already been announced.

A decision published on the Lloyds website says the decision was made following an “in-depth review”. The review assessed how often customers used the branch and what for, among other factors.

Ms Webbe said in a statement: “The closure of the Lloyds branch on Uppingham Road in November will leave an entire community without a bank branch and facing a journey of over two miles for in-person banking, while the bank only began discussing the impact with the community or its representatives when it had already announced the closure. At least another eight bank branches will close across Leicestershire this year, including at least two more in Leicester already closed or about to – and some parts of the city have already lost more than three-quarters of their branches.

“This closure forms part of a mass nationwide programme of closures by high street banks that has seen branch numbers cut by almost six thousand since 2015 at a rate of over fifty a month. The loss of a bank branch has a huge and disproportionate impact on elderly, disabled and vulnerable people, who rely more on in-person banking and face the greatest difficulties in reaching more distant branches.

Claudia Webbe MP is the member of Parliament for Leicester East. You can follow her at www.facebook.com/claudiaforLE and twitter.com/ClaudiaWebbe