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Department of Spatial Planning

Contribution to policymaking on financial inclusion in the UK

Histogram of opening hours of post offices offering basic banking services in Wales © Sonea & Westerholt (2021)

Financial inclusion is essential for active citizenship and economic participation. There is also a strong spatial dimension, as access to basic banking services is not equally provided everywhere. Based on a recent publication that was co-authored by RAM (see separate news item and the reference below this paragraph), Jun.-Prof. Dr. René Westerholt, together with Andra Sonea (Saïd Business School, University of Oxford), participated in a so-called 'Consultation' of HM Treasury. The Consultation is a formal participation procedure for the inclusion of experts for the purpose of contributing to political decision-making processes. This procedure is preceded by a "Call for Evidence", in which a comprehensive overview of a topic is first drawn up. From this, concrete questions are derived, which are addressed in the subsequent Consultation. The 'Access-to-Cash' Consultation in question aims, among other things, to adapt the definition of access criteria to banking services as well as the methodology for their regular assessment. In the recently published article, René Westerholt and Andra Sonea show for the case of Wales that spatial and temporal access to basic banking services is very unevenly distributed. Furthermore, it is shown that the existing minimum criteria of the British government are not being met, despite self-assessment to the contrary. The latter is due to the way the criteria are being assessed. In this contribution to the Consultation, these issues and possible approaches to improving the situation are suggested. We hope that in this way our research can have a tangible and positive influence on political decision-making processes.

 

The response submitted to HM Treasury can be viewed here:

https://ram.raumplanung.tu-dortmund.de/access-to-cash-sonea-westerholt/

 

Reference to the article published in Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy on which the policy advisory contribution is based:

Sonea, A., & Westerholt, R. (2021). Geographic and Temporal Access to Basic Banking Services Offered through Post Offices in Wales. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, volume and issue pending.