60 branch closures announced today
The closure of 24 Lloyds, 19 Bank of Scotland and 17 Halifax branches has been announced today by Lloyds Banking Group with the closures scheduled between June and September 2022.
The maximum level of staff reductions expected because of the closures is 124 FTE (full-time equivalent) because many of the impacted colleagues are expected to be redeployed into other branches.
So far, all branch closures have been managed through voluntary redundancies and Accord has again secured a commitment from LBG that they will aim to achieve any reductions in staffing without the need for compulsory redundancies.
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.
Supporting members
We’ll be contacting our members who are impacted by the closures to offer support and representation.
Any more general enquiries should be referred to [email protected]