Free-to-use cash machines result: Bristol leads the way

A coalition of Bristol-based anti-poverty groups is today announcing unique city-wide action on free-to-use cash machines.

An innovative partnership between local groups and Nationwide Building Society offers a strategic solution for Bristol people - and a blueprint for other cities to follow.

Nationwide is pledging to provide free cash machines for low-income areas across Bristol and Weston-super-Mare, where suitable sites can be found. These could include shops, community centres or libraries that are in busy areas where people feel safe and where a hole-in-the-wall machine would give people free access to their cash 24 hours a day.

The Bristol Financial Inclusion Taskforce

(B-FIT) is launching a public consultation to identify where cash machines are most needed across the city.

The announcement follows extensive campaigning by the Bristol Evening Post, the Citizens Advice Bureau and others, and longstanding national concern about the lack of access to free cash machines, especially in deprived areas. It is estimated consumers will pay more than £250 million to access their own cash across the UK in 2007.

Carole Crouch, of the Bristol Financial Inclusion Taskforce, said: "We warmly welcome this commitment by Nationwide, which gives us a wonderful opportunity to place a significant number of new machines where they are most needed. We've launched a public consultation through the local press and community venues to involve people all over the city in determining the best possible sites for these machines.

"A weekly withdrawal would typically cost £91 a year, which for the lowest earning 10% of households is a whole week's income. If the richest households paid that proportion of their income, the charge would be over £15 per withdrawal.

"Several banks and building societies have promised more free cash machines, encouraged by the recent Parliamentary working group. But the action is piecemeal. By working together in Bristol with

Nationwide, our solution will be coherent and strategic. We anticipate that the first machines will be operating in late summer, and hope people will have better access to their money in many parts of the city by the end of the year."

Jeremy Wood, Nationwide director, said: "We have long campaigned for real action to protect the free cash machine network and this innovative partnership is a great opportunity to make a difference to deprived communities. We already have 30 free cash machines in the Bristol area, and are now inviting local people to suggest new locations for more free cash machines. This is a significant step forward in ensuring people can access their cash for free."

Max Beseke, of Bristol CAB, said: "This is a good example of how we can make society fairer for us all by working together. Local action is crucial but also needs the weight of a national campaign to put pressure on the Government and providers of services. Together we can help the voice of the ordinary person to be heard.

"There are over 600 cashpoints in this area, and almost half of them are free. And yet 84% of Bristol's most deprived neighbourhoods don't have a free machine in them. That can't be right."

Cash machine provision is one part of a wider financial inclusion agenda that also includes the expansion of local face-to-face debt advice and the development of a city-wide Credit Union.