The changing demands of banking - further branch closures
The closure of 29 Lloyds and 15 Halifax branches has been announced today by Lloyds Banking Group with the closures scheduled between September and November 2021.
These are the first closures to be announced since January 2020.
The overall level of staff reductions expected because of the closures is just over 60 (full-time equivalent) because many of the impacted grade A colleagues are expected to be redeployed into other branches. Grade B and C colleagues in the closing branches will all be redeployed into other branches. So far, all branch closures have been managed without compulsory redundancies and Accord has again secured this commitment from LBG for its members.
Every branch that closes, however small, has an impact on our members and the bank’s customers. For our members, there’s the possibility of disruption to their working hours, location and work-life balance as well as possible increased commute costs and time spent travelling. And for customers, there is the inconvenience of working out where their nearest Post Office is and the loss of trusted relationships with LBG staff formed over many years.
We fully appreciate that the demand for high street branch banking is reducing, and the pandemic has distorted that demand significantly as customers increasingly moved to phone and app-based banking. However, the scale with which customers return to branches is an unknown at this point and we’ll be examining LBG’s plans to ensure that they’re properly thought through and robustly evidenced.
Saving jobs, preventing redundancies
We have contacted our members who are impacted by the closures to offer support and representation.
Any more general enquiries should be referred to [email protected]
