Green Councillor Kevin Pressland is a passionate campaigner for nature and the natural environment. His understanding of the threats faced by the natural world is based on expertise gained from a 40-year career in horticulture, garden design and sustainable land management.
Barclays Bank in Ramsgate is to close, another example of the decline in the larger banks’ direct interaction with communities. This happened just before my recent visit to the Peak District in Bakewell where the NatWest Bank was closing. Talking to local people particularly above 70 they expressed the significant negative impact it would have for them and the community, as it will in Ramsgate.
The wave of bank closures has affected every part of the UK, with a total of 1,059 lost in England alone, plus another 88 in Scotland, 74 in Wales, 37 in Northern Ireland, and one in the Isle of Wight. Around a quarter of those closures (341) have left the surrounding community with no branch of any bank nearby. There are initiatives to create alternative combined bank outlets called Bank Hubs (see link), these are few and far between https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/09/more-banking-hubs-to-open-across-the-uk-to-help-people-get-acces/
Online banking does have many advantages, though the impacts to communities should be better considered. People’s ability to choose how they wish to bank should encompass flexibility and be appropriately safeguarded by authorities.
Saying that, people also should be more aware that the big banks continue in many cases to support the fossil fuel industry, mass commercial biofuel production, plastics industry, fracking etc perpetuating business as usual without appearing to think about the long term consequences of their lending. Banks like Barclays, Santander, Citi group, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Mitsubishi UFJ are making billions of pounds in profits by enabling companies that are ripping through rainforests and turbo charging climate change and harming local communities.
They bankroll some of the most destructive companies around – beef companies like JBS clearing the Amazon, to palm oil giants like Sinar Mas destroying orangutan habitat in Indonesia and the intricate diverse ecosystem they live in. These ecosystems are also massive carbon sinks and affect weather patterns including rain essential for crops etc. NatWest sadly continues to support fracking abroad. HSBC continues investing in the Oil Industry as do others.
There are alternative banks with more ethos that are part of ‘The Global Alliance on Banking on Values’ https://www.gabv.org/ These banks pride themselves in the highest levels of sustainability. These values encompass lending to organic farming/horticulture, regenerative farming, community energy initiatives, eco housing, social enterprises that improve lives of the disabled and mental health etc.
Please consider changing your bank to help make a positive difference in society and the world.
This article is an edited version of the original
