The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has called on the Government to take urgent action to ensure long-term access to cash and to provide local shops with support in order to continue providing this service to their customers.
ACS observes that today (March 11) marks one year since the Government outlined its commitment to legislate to secure access to cash at Budget 2020.
However, in a recent letter to Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Annelise Dodds, Chancellor Rishi Sunak wrote that the Government would ensure “regulators have the right responsibilities and powers to oversee the cash system” but made no new pledge to introduce legislation setting out banks’ obligations.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “Local shops operate in the heart of their communities, providing access to cash through ATMs and cashback.
“The Government needs to take urgent action and honour the commitment made this time last year to ensure that local shops can continue to provide this vital service to their communities and enable consumers the freedom to use a range of different payment methods.”
Findings from ACS’ 2020 Local Shop Report demonstrate the vital role that local shops play in providing their communities with access to their cash, through cashback (68%), free-to-use ATMs (49%), pay-to-use ATMs (22%) and Post Offices (22%).
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