PLANS to open a new banking hub in Acton this June have been welcomed by Ealing Central and Acton MP Rupa Huq.

She is at the forefront of a campaign to ensure fair access to cash in Acton, which lost its last bank branch, Barclays, last June, and has seen a sharp reduction in the number of ATMs.

In December, she pressed Chancellor Rishi Sunak on the lack of banking services in the area.

Now, Acton has been earmarked for a hub, the first of its kind in London.

It will serve customers of most major UK banks, offering basic banking service.

Run jointly by the Post Office and lenders, the hub will also provide rooms for customers to meet staff from their own bank.

The initiative follows trials in Rochford, Essex, and Cambuslang, outside Glasgow. They will now run indefinitely.

Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander, TSB and Danske Bank, as well as Nationwide building society, have signed up to the scheme.

Several sites for the Acton hub are being considered, including the unit used to house Barclays in the High Street before it closed, and the site of the old Post Office in King Street, which shut in 2018. 

Rupa Huq and Acton councillors recently met with the industry-backed Access to Cash Action Group (ACAG) to discuss steps to ensure Acton residents can play an active role in the planning. 

Dr Huq said: “Thousands of Actonians still use cash daily and businesses need places to withdraw and deposit it.

“Asking them to travel to Ealing or Chiswick to carry out basic banking services is neither fair nor practical.”