{"id":11877,"date":"2017-03-23T16:17:51","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T16:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=11877"},"modified":"2017-03-23T16:18:19","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T16:18:19","slug":"rbs-turning-back-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=11877","title":{"rendered":"Turning its back on communities"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Unite has expressed anger over plans by RBS Group to cut even more branches across the UK as it renewed calls for a moritorium on branch closures.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The bank, majority owned by the UK government, today (March 23) announced that it plans to close 158 branches across Britain, on top of the 86 announced late last year. Some 925 staff will be affected, with 472 full-time equivalent jobs at risk.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Across England and Wales, a total of 128 branches are affected \u00e2\u20ac\u201c mostly branded NatWest. In Scotland, 30 branches branded RBS are on the hit list.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe RBS Group is turning its back on the communities that have been the foundation of its business for generations,&#8221; said Unite acting general secretary Gail Cartmail. &#8220;That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad news for our members who now have to live with the threat of redundancy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad news for customers and businesses.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBanks have a duty to the wider community and that is especially the case for banks like RBS that have large taxpayer-owned shareholdings.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople like the face-to-face contact that having a physical presence in the high street provides. Pensioners, people with mobility issues, and those without internet access are being particularly hard-hit \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially in rural areas. Small businesses are also badly affected \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially those that rely on cash-handing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for banking regulators and government to intervene, to force banks to maintain an adequate network that properly serves communities across the UK.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite says survey after survey have found that the majority of people believe convenient local branches are essential or very important to them.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And the union also points to research from campaign group Move Your Money, which found that the closure of a branch affects the amount of money loaned to small businesses in the surrounding area \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with lending growth 63 per cent less in the postcodes that lose a bank branch. This figure grows to 104 per cent for postcodes that lose their last branch in town.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unite has expressed anger over plans by RBS Group to cut even more branches across the UK as it renewed calls for a moritorium on branch closures. &nbsp; The bank, majority owned by the UK government, today (March 23) announced that it plans to close 158 branches across Britain, on top of the 86 announced [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[292,123],"wps_subtitle":"Anger over plans to shut more branches","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11877"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11877"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11881,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11877\/revisions\/11881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}