By Press Release
When I opened up my business in 1988 there were ten building societies and five banks. By August there will be only one bank and two building societies, and, from June, one of the building societies will go down to a three-day week. There will only be one building society in Ryde that will be open five days a week, full-time, and a half day on Saturdays.
This is a concern as the Isle of Wight has a higher proportion of small businesses than a lot of the areas in the south east. Ryde is also the largest town by way of population, so there is greater demand in Ryde rather than in the capital town of Newport.
The concern is why are the banks doing so many of these closures. Unfortunately, these are due to head office decisions that are made without carefully looking at the individual locations and their individual buildings in particular towns. Many of the closures are due to the fact that they have retained the same building since first opening, when some of the big banks had between thirty and forty members of staff. Such staffing levels have now diminished due to technology; surely if they just downsized and released funds from their property this would reduce their overall costs. More importantly, it would ensure continued access for individuals and businesses servicing their accounts.
When banks or building societies close, they will highlight that people can utilise post offices. Unfortunately, we have also seen the demise of these within the United Kingdom, and there are now very few Crown Post Offices (those traditionally run by Royal Mail). The majority now are sub-post offices and, therefore, will need to be able to cope with the increased volume of business that comes as a result of the many bank closures. Also, due to the IT disaster caused by Horizon, many sub-post offices have also closed and Post Offices Counters Limited are finding it difficult to find new locations to be run under their franchise format.
The Isle of Wight Council continues to make us aware of scams and we see many scams within the banking sector, over which there are continued concerns. So people feel more comfortable dealing in person at a branch.
On the Island there are many small businesses with owners who are working full time and it is essential that they have access to their business accounts locally. With the closures in Ryde, travelling to and from Newport and the difficulties of parking will take a considerable amount of time out of their business week and will not be cost-effective. Someone will have to pay for this.
We now see on the mainland that banking hubs are being set up in various places. These are shared facilities between a number of banks, which staff them on a given day. As we will be down to only one bank, careful consideration ought to be given to provide this possibility for the town of Ryde. Many businesses in Ryde need a cash facility (i.e. changing coins to notes and vice versa) and some companies like ourselves are having to consider changing banks or are looking at bringing in security. This brings even more cost to the business at a continuing difficult time after Covid-19 and the recession, particularly as the security facilities come from the mainland. This will therefore put even further strains on local Island businesses.
