Luton North MP demands residents have access to their money after 46% drop in free cashpoints

The Covid-19 crisis has seen a shift in the country's relationship with money, as more people resort to contactless card payments.

Cash withdrawals across the country are estimated to have halved during lockdown.

Between 2018 and 2020, the number of free use ATMs in Luton North has dropped by 46% - one of the top five biggest falls in free cash machines across the UK. ATMs overall have dropped by 26% in those two years.

Ms Owen said: “In our area, access to free cash has fallen by nearly half in just two years. The cash industry are charging more and more people in Luton North to access their own money.

“This disproportionately impacts those on low incomes, the elderly and people already struggling to make ends meet, who may have been struggling even more over the last few months of the pandemic.

“There’s a real risk that the UK is sleepwalking into a cashless society without ensuring people who rely on cash rather than cards getting the support they need.

“The move to cashless as a way to help stop the spread of coronavirus has been necessary, but we need to consider the clear lesson from other countries where we’ve seen that once the heart has been ripped out of the cash industry, the cash registers are removed and ATMs are mothballed and a vital lifeline has been cut.

“I am joining GMB’s call on the Government to take action to protect the industry, properly consider the impact on those going cashless will impact, and all those who will be hit hard by the removal by stealth of access to cash.”

In March, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced the government would bring forward legislation to stop the country sleepwalking into a “cashless society”.

The GMB Union is campaigning for legislation that guarantees:

> A legal right to pay for goods and services in cash;

> Free access to cash – free-to-use ATMs and bank branches within a reasonable geographic distance;

> Availability of “cash back” from medium and large retailers.