00:00I also want to thank my friend for calling the debate, the Honourable Member from South West Hertfordshire.
00:07Banking hubs are really important in his constituency, but I think rural constituencies across the country, like South Shropshire, this is very important.
00:16So I have a 700 square mile constituency of the most beautiful towns and villages that are a delight.
00:25But with this beauty and tranquillity comes remoteness and lack of connectivity for many people who can feel isolated.
00:34So we've seen the decline of the High Street Bank over years.
00:38And some of these services that we would have taken for granted are no longer available.
00:42But I still believe that they're of huge importance to the local communities.
00:47So we've recently lost Lloyds Bank in both Bridge North and Ludlow.
00:51And this is seen as a major loss to both towns.
00:55I was quick to launch my survey on the closure of these to find out what residents thought.
01:00And overwhelmingly, they were really upset about this.
01:03And they still require face-to-face services and access to cash.
01:08So we were very fortunate to have Dudley Building Society to come to Bridge North recently, open it just opposite my office.
01:17But they don't offer the full services traditional banks do.
01:20And setting up banking hubs, it's not that viable for them at the moment.
01:24So that's quite hard to do.
01:26So I wrote to many different organisations to see what support we could get on our High Street.
01:32And Link come back to me and they have conducted assessment, as many members have pointed out here today.
01:37But they didn't recommend any additional services in any of my rural towns.
01:44And they've looked at this because they believe that there is adequate access for local residents in all of these areas to access to cash and banking services, which I disagree with.
01:56So Bridge North is served by Nationwide and HSBC, while Ludlow has NatWest and Nationwide.
02:04If you're not with those banks, you're stuck.
02:07And you might have been with Lloyd's for years.
02:09And then you find that you've got to travel to either Wolverhampton or, if you're in Ludlow, you've got to go to Hereford, which is probably 40 minutes.
02:15It's not suitable for everyone.
02:17So I believe this approach is a reactive approach that watches the decline of our High Street.
02:25And we should have a change in the process where we can be proactive and the regulation can change to allow Link to be able to put these services into the High Street.
02:36And I don't want to see or wait for every bank to close before we can get a banking hub.
02:41I don't feel that's the right approach.
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