Will the Treasury grant Totnes a banking hub?

Back in October the Prime Minister said any area that needs a banking hub can have one.

If that was right, LINK would have signed off Totnes’s banking hub by now. The truth is the government can’t demand LINK open a banking hub somewhere.

But what they can do is change the rules under which a banking hub is granted.

The current rules, which are way too narrow, focus solely on cash access.

Our cash access is okay in Totnes. We’ve got a few ATMs – whether they are always working is a different story – but what we lack is face-to-face banking services.

There is more to a bank than cash and it’s time the rules reflected that.