Devon MP condemns rural banking "heist", as Honiton counts down to losing its last bank

Richard Foord, MP for the Honiton & Sidmouth constituency, was speaking in a Westminster Hall debate on face-to-face banking in rural areas on Tuesday 1 September.

Mr Foord said:

"I am joining this debate today to speak about an appalling bank heist. It has happened not just in one town; it is happening in rural towns across the country. It is not a vault that is being raided and it is not cash that is being snatched. It is the very banking services that support our most vulnerable that are being taken away.”

The Lloyds Bank branch in Honiton is due to close on 16 March 2027. This will remove Honiton's last bank, after the Santander branch closed for the last time in July 2025, and NatWest did the same in October 2025.

Financial Conduct Authority data for 2025 recorded that less than 15 per cent of rural East Devon residents lived within a mile of a bank branch. That was before the loss of banks in neighbouring towns, such as the closure of the Lloyds branch in Seaton in March 2026.

The debate, secured by Caroline Voaden, MP for South Devon, comes as the Government's independent Access to Banking Services Review prepares to report in October.

Mr Foord described the example of a Honiton couple, whose adult daughter has significant learning difficulties and cannot recall her PIN without prompting, or use telephone banking without a parent present. It has left their daughter exposed to scams by online services.

Mr Foord also set out the experience of another constituent in her late seventies who wanted to pay using cash. She was told at her Lloyds branch to use the Post Office, then told by the Post Office to ring Lloyds. She gave up on the automated telephone line and went to a banking hub, where she was reduced to tears as a member of staff tried to talk her through navigating the same system.

Mr Foord was one of 121 MPs whose cross-party letter in June persuaded Lloyds Bank to reverse its withdrawal of cheque deposits from Post Office counters. A banking hub has been recommended for Honiton, the ninth in Devon, and is expected to be opened in February 2027.

Mr Foord concluded:

"Lloyds Banking Group made £6.7 billion in pre-tax profits. This is an outrage, and the Government needs to do more than just set up an independent review into access to banking services. It needs to make sure that the most vulnerable in our society get the services they need in rural regions."

Mr Foord will press the case again when the Government responds to the review in October.