Banking Hubs

Debate between Ann Davies and Graham Leadbitter

Wednesday 20th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Graham Leadbitter]

The hon. Gentleman makes a fantastic point and I will come on to that later in my remarks.

[Ann Davies (Caerfyrddin) (PC)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. We will leave him in peace for a while after this. For nine months I have been trying to get a banking hub in Ammanford, which is a post-industrial town, but Link has turned us down. We went to appeal and it turned us down again. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that we need consistency in applying Financial Conduct Authority guidance? All the elements seem to qualify that town for a banking hub, but yet again, Link has turned us down. There seems to be a lack of consistency in applying the rules.

[Graham Leadbitter]

Absolutely. That consistency is vital, but flexibility within the criteria is also vital. I will come on to that as well.

It is frankly hard to stomach that the big high street banks use the argument of increased digital banking to justify local bank closures while building large, centralised banking centres in our cities. Surely the same argument can be applied to push workforce and management out to existing bank branches in local communities and enable that local workforce to carry out tasks on national functions such as mortgage services and business banking using the very same digital technology.