I have sent the following letter to Nathan Bostock, Chief Executive Officer of Santander:

 

Dear Mr Bostock

 

Having mopped up a lot of business following the closure of the Chislehurst branches of HSBC and the Coop Bank, including my account, closure is now planned. It is surprising that you have not waited to get even more new accounts from the closure of the local NatWest branch, but perhaps that news came through too late for you to stall your plans.

 

Clearly, the banks spoke with forked tongues when they mouthed support for the government’s wish to see more retail banks on the high streets of Britain in order to promote more competition.

 

As an account-holder with Santander, I have received notification that, “the Santander branch at 61-63 High Street in Chislehurst will be closing on 12 October 2017”. Done deal. Not so much as a pretence of consulting me.  But I am a mere customer; I now know my place.  The literature available in the branch claims that you have consulted widely, including the local Chamber of Commerce, which has not existed for decades, the Citizens Advice Bureau, which has never existed here, and Age UK, which denies hearing from you. You claim to have consulted our three ward councillors.  They have heard nothing from you. You have not sought the views of the Chislehurst Town Team and the Chislehurst Business Group, which between them represent over a hundred local businesses, churches, charities and other community organisations.  You have not consulted the Chislehurst Society, which is the biggest civic society in the country. Perhaps the branch has not been open long enough to get to know the neighbourhood and its organisations. It is amazing that such a massive international organisation as yours could make such a complete mess of dealing with a branch closure.

 

In your branch closure impact assessment, you talk glibly about alternative Santander branches and electronic banking, which suggests to me that you are unaware of the demographic balance of Chislehurst’s population.  I know that all banks are doing their best to corner their customers into doing all transactions online, so that they can shut down high street branches wholesale, save money and further enrich their shareholders. My hope is that a future government will re-nationalise the Post Office, establish within every post office branch a retail bank and undercut and undermine all the other banks. That would serve them right.

 

You recently announced 1st quarter pre-tax profit of over £500 million and ascribed this success to “our strategy of putting our customers at the heart of everything we do.”

 

That is a sick joke.

 

 

Yours sincerely

Colin Yardley

 

Copy to:

Simon Bray

London & East Division

Santander UK plc

Santander House

Grafton Gate East

Milton Keynes

MK9 1AN