I will start by making reference to what Adam mentioned in his opening speech, and that’s the fact that the largest banks tend to close banks in disproportionate numbers in our poorest areas—those with the lowest incomes—while opening branches in some of the best-off areas. Reuters research shows that more than 90 per cent of the banks that closed between April 2015 and April 2016 closed in areas that had a median household income below the UK average, whilst, at the same time, during the same period, five of the eight branches that opened opened in London, in Chelsea, Canary Wharf, St Paul’s, and so on, in the most prosperous areas. Indeed, the large banks are three times as likely to close banks in Wales as they are in the south-east of England, if you look at the population size. So it’s about time that we looked at alternative arrangements and means of responding positively to the situation. One does get the impression that there is some sort of stampede now amongst the banks to not be the last bank to close in a town, because they know how much more difficult it will be for them to close in those circumstances.

We’ve all heard the banks saying—and I heard it about Corwen a few years ago—’Well, don’t worry, you can take your services to Llangollen, just a few miles down the road’. The following year, Llangollen closed down—the Cabinet Secretary is more than aware of this; it’s in his constituency. Llangollen closes, there’s talk of Ruabon and Chirk, of course—now, Wrexham. The same thing happened in Betws-y-Coed: closure in Betws-y-Coed—’Go to Llanrwst’. Llanrwst is closing, so you now have to go to Llandudno. The services are going further and further away from the population and that is not acceptable. It appears that after HSBC in Llanrwst closes—and we haven’t given up yet on that, but when it does close, if the bank gets its way—there will be over 2,000 square miles of my region of north Wales without a branch or a bank. It’s this desert that Adam Price referred to in terms of banking services: a journey of 50 miles in total to access bank services.

We know, of course, it’s older people who are most reliant on bank branches, and they are also the ones most reliant, very often, on public transport, which in and of itself creates all sorts of difficulties, and those, of course, who are least likely to be using online banking or telephone banking services. And we know about the quality of those services in certain areas of Wales—they’re among the worst in Britain. I do feel that we should be asking some of these banks, ‘If you are serious about insisting that people access your services online or via mobile phones, shouldn’t you be creating a fund and contributing towards ensuring that the infrastructure is in place, so that your customers can access your services?’ Llanrwst Town Council, for example, has called on HSBC to delay the closure of the branch until each and every one of its customers in that area can get access from their homes to the internet and to a mobile phone signal.

Now, we’ve also heard about the impact on small businesses, and it’s a significant impact. The HSBC branch in Cerrigydrudion was closed; there’s no bank there. I know of at least one business that has to close for half a day in order to go to bank their takings elsewhere and come back, and that is a concern. Services for businesses aren’t often available in many of these branches. If you want to speak to a business consultant in north Wales, you have to go to Llandudno or to Bangor, and the banks complain that the footfall is down in their branches. Well, there’s no surprise there, when they themselves are centralising some of these services.

These branches, we mustn’t forget, are still generating an income. They’re not running at a loss—it’s just clear that they’re not making enough of a profit for many of these banks. We’ve heard about the impact of branch closures on borrowing in banks, too. And the banks are more than financial institutions, of course. They are part of the community infrastructure, they are cornerstones of our high streets and they are iconic buildings, very often, on our high streets. They are historic buildings, and, when those are left vacant, well, the high street is depleted and they become eyesores. In an area such as Rhuthin, where NatWest has announced that they’re to close, NatWest, of course, is in the old courthouse building on the town square, the most iconic building in the town—a building built in the fifteenth century in the years after Owain Glyndŵr ransacked the town. You can still see the remains of the old gallows last used in 1679 there. And so what kind of mark will that leave on the high street in Rhuthin if that building falls into disrepair and is unused?

There have been calls for a duty to transfer some of these important buildings into public use, perhaps at a lower rent. There’s a great deal more that I feel we can do, but what’s important is that it is up to us to create an alternative future when it comes to banking. A public bank for Wales would certainly be part of the solution, but I think there’s a great deal more that we can do to put pressure on the banks to contribute in other ways in order to ensure that the fact that they are leaving some of these communities doesn’t leave problems in its wake.