The future of Burnham-On-Sea’s branch of Lloyds Bank could be threatened by major cost-cutting plans announced this week.
Lloyds, which has a branch on the corner of Burnham’s High Street and College Street, said on Tuesday that it is cutting 9,000 jobs and closing 150 branches in the next three years.
This amounts to roughly 10% of its workforce. It was only in 2008, following the financial crisis, that it cut 43,000 jobs.
The bank says it is to first concentrate on urban branch closures. A total of 200 branches will close with 50 new ones opening, according to the bank. This means that 150 – about 7% – of its 2,250 branches will shut.
A spokeswoman for the bank told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “It’s too early to say whether the Burnham’s branch will be affected. No decision has yet been taken on which branches are closing – the locations will be announced over the coming year.”
Leading workers’ union Unite has called on Lloyds to offer a “no compulsory redundancy guarantee”.
Spokesman Rob MacGregor said: “The wallets of top executives at Lloyds should not be getting fat by forcing low paid workers onto the dole. If there are compulsory redundancies or customer service suffers then executive pay should be cut.”
The closures and job cuts are due to customers switching towards mobile banking, the bank says. As a result, Lloyds will be investing £1bn in digital technology over the next three years.
