Bank closures have been rife up and down the country as lenders look to save money and move more people online.

Already 28 constituencies are without a bricks and mortar bank, AI and analytics provider SAS found in their 2023 report.

Areas include:

• St Helens North, Bradford South and Don Valley which all lost their last physical branch within the last three years.

• South Leicestershire saw five closures in the same time,

• Edinburgh West had nine closures,

• Nottingham East residents lost all four remaining branches.

Assuming the areas would continue on the same trajectory, SAS said the following constituencies were most at risk of being without any branches next year:

• Ross, Skye and Lochaber, Scotland (18,819 people per branch)

• Argyll and Bute, Scotland (8,626 people per branch)

• Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, Scotland (800 people per branch)

• Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, Scotland (188 people per branch)

• Copeland, England (39,000 people per branch)

• South Down, England (123,121 people per branch)

• North Ayrshire and Arran, Scotland (20,320 people per branch)

• Central Devon, England (47,612 people per branch)

• Tewkesbury, England (112,255 people per branch)

• Gainsborough, England (98,796 people per branch)

The 2023 SAS list of 'at-risk' areas has since become a reality for many communities. As of February 2026, several constituencies - including the former front-runner Ross, Skye and Lochaber - now have zero traditional bank branches.

And as of early 2026, the high-street banking landscape has been fundamentally reshaped. According to the latest tracking data from Which?, over 6,000 branches have closed across the UK since 2015, with the pace of closures remaining high through 2025.

In short, the 'banking desert' has expanded significantly, with areas like Barnsley East, Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, and Erith and Thamesmead now among those with no high-street bank presence. This has left dozens of parliamentary constituencies with no remaining physical bank branches at all, forcing a nationwide shift toward shared banking hubs and Post Office services.

These rural areas have a typically older population who rely on in-person banking.

However it's not all bad news for banking customers. Burton, South East Cambridgeshire and Wolverhampton North East each got one new bank branch in the last few years.

Another 21 areas saw no change to the number of banks in their area.

The 10 areas least affected by branch closures:

• Wolverhampton North East, England

• South East Cambridgeshire, England

• Burton, England

• Wentworth and Dearne, England

• Sheffield Hallam, England

• Liverpool West Derby, England

• Stoke-on-Trent North, England

• Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, England

• Chatham and Aylesford, England

• Derby North, England

Banking Hubs

The rollout of shared Banking Hubs has accelerated dramatically to meet the gap. As of February 2026, Cash Access UK has opened over 125 operational hubs across the UK. These hubs provide a counter service operated by the Post Office alongside a private space where customers can meet a community banker from their own bank on a specific day of the week. Under new government regulations, a further 150 hubs are currently in the planning or development stage for 2026/27.

Louise Potts, head of banking and customer advisory at SAS UK, believes a hybrid banking model - a mix of in-person and online - is the best solution for lenders.

She also says bank sharing hubs could work, where different lenders share one physical building.

She said: "These hubs are owned by Cash Access UK and run by the Post Office, as a way of bringing back banking facilities in an accessible way to the areas that need it.

"There are currently seven hubs open in the UK, each having different schedules whereby they rotate banks each day. They’re located in London, Devon, Lanarkshire, Angus, East Yorkshire, Essex and South Ayrshire, with 61 additional hubs planned for communities across the UK.

"They could serve as financial centres and foster growth in communities with a higher concentration of residents and businesses alike, improving financial inclusion. It could also benefit a number of communities with no bank branches, especially those in built-up areas serving many customers such as Edinburgh South West, Nottingham East and North Swindon, according to our research."

Have you been impacted by bank closures in your area? How are you coping with the change? Let us know in the comment section below.

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