RBS axing nearly 800 jobs with branches closing

Branches in Walsall, Stafford and Kidderminster are among 162 in England and Wales that will start shutting in August, with the loss of nearly 800 jobs.

Outlets in Telford, Shrewsbury, Edgbaston and Sutton Coldfield are to go as well, leaving just Wolverhampton and Birmingham city centre with RBS branches.

The move will close more than half of the RBS branches south of the Scottish border, leaving just 105.

The news is being broken to staff today. The lender, still 72 per cent owned by the taxpayer, said the move was linked to it not having to sell its Williams & Glyn business.

As a result, the group has branches close to each other – including its NatWest banks – and is seeking to reduce overlap. Natwest has many more sites in England and Wales – 650, including local branches at Wolverhampton, Fordhouses, Bilston, Wednesfield, Dudley, Merry Hill, Kingswinford, Walsall, Aldridge, West Bromwich, Cannock and two in Stafford.

RBS said: "Following a review of the branch network in England and Wales a decision has been taken to close 162 Royal Bank of Scotland branches.

"As a result of this process, around 792 roles will be made redundant, and we will seek to support our colleagues with the option to leave on a voluntary basis."

It comes less than six months since the last round of RBS closures was announced, shutting 259 of its 1,003 branches – 62 Royal Bank of Scotland and 197 NatWest.

RBS had been told to sell off its Williams & Glyn business to meet state aid rules following its £45 billion Government bailout at the height of the financial crisis. But RBS could never find a buyer and is now folding it back into its core business.

An RBS spokesman said: "We are no longer launching Williams & Glyn as a challenger bank, and we now have two branch networks operating in close proximity to each other; NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland, in England and Wales.

"As a result we have had to review our overall branch footprint in England and Wales and we've made the difficult decision to close a number of Royal Bank of Scotland branches. Customers of Royal Bank of Scotland in England and Wales will be able to use NatWest branches instead for their everyday banking needs."

The chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), Staffordshire businessman Mike Cherry, said: “It’s thoroughly disappointing to see RBS using the failed sale of Williams & Glyn as an excuse to further decimate the UK’s bank branch network.

“This fresh round of closures will hurt high streets all over the country at a time when thousands of small firms are already struggling. When a bank branch goes it means less footfall, less cash in the local economy and less revenue for local small firms as a result."

The move has also come under fire from unions bosses, who claim the closures will 'wreck' the Williams & Glyn network.

Unite says that in the case of 71 of the 162 branches closing customers will be forced to make return journeys of around 25 miles.The UK's biggest union says it is calling for these "disastrous plans" to be halted.

Rob MacGregor Unite national officer said: “Nearly 1,000 employees have finally been told of their dark futures because the bank has been calamitously managed for too long. These plans can not be put into motion for the sake of consumers and staff.

“The reality is that as a result of these planned closures the overwhelming majority of customers will find themselves without access to full banking facilities and in the most extreme examples some will find themselves having to make a round trip of circa 130 miles.”

The union claims RBS spent £1.8 billion last year trying to set up Williams & Glyn as a stand-alone bank. "Nobody has been held to account for this enormous failed IT project and yet the workforce is paying the price for such poor management in the form of their jobs," said a spokesperson.