Hornchurch and Upminster MP, Julia Lopez, is calling on residents to help with a campaign to improve local banking and postal services in the wake of Barclays' planned closure of its Hornchurch branch in May.
The MP has launched a banking survey to understand local demand for access to cash and other financial services to see if a case can be made for a constituency Banking Hub.
The Barclays announcement follows the closure of the Hornchurch HSBC branch last year alongside closures of NatWest in Harold Hill, and Halifax and Barclays branches in Upminster. Given these closures, Mrs Lopez believes a Banking Hub - a shared banking facility in which businesses and residents get face-to-face support from all major high street banks on rotating days - could be an important way to secure people's access to vital services.
To help make the case for such a facility, Mrs Lopez is first eager to understand how local businesses and residents have been affected by recent closures and whether their banking needs are currently being met. The MP has been visiting businesses in Hornchurch High Street with her team to deliver a short survey seeking their feedback. She also wishes to hear directly from residents and other local businesses on how they have been affected.
Mrs Lopez has posted the short survey on her website, available below, and asks for as many responses as possible. She will be extending the survey to include postal services after a recent Citizens' Advice survey found that, in Hornchurch & Upminster, only 65.6% of first class letters were delivered in time throughout the Q3 of the 2023/24 financial year, falling 35% below Ofcom’s target of 93%. Mrs Lopez will be submitting to Ofcom concerns about the postal service, especially in the Upminster area, and the importance of the Universal Service Offering but would welcome ongoing feedback from constituents.
Julia Lopez MP said:
‘It's great that online banking allows us to access a lot of services 24/7 but it doesn't stop local residents and businesses from needing to talk to an actual person, get and deposit cash and go through procedures like mortgage applications.
I don't want constituents cut off from those in-person services and want to see if we can make the case for a Banking Hub. They tend to be reserved for more rural communities so it's a long shot but we have a large population of older residents and a thriving business community. So I'd love everyone to help me gather evidence of need that I can present to the Banking Hub teams. Recent data from the Financial Conduct Authority confirms that 21% of adults still regularly use a bank branch and I'm sure that that figure will be higher in our thriving town centres which are within walking distance of many elderly residents',
