Brighton and Hove has lost one in six ATMs in three years. New analysis of LINK data, a network of cash machines, shows there were 218 ATMs open in Brighton and Hove as of June. This was a 16 per cent decrease from 260 in June 2021, the earliest available local figures.
In Brighton and Hove, 151 machines are free to use, while 67 charge a fee. The UK has lost one in ten of its ATMs between June 2021 and June 2024, falling from 54,000 to 48,500. Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said free access to cash is "absolutely vital" for older people, given many of them do not manage their money online.
Read more: School will officially close at the end of the year FCA rules introduced in September require banks to give more consideration to local communities before they close a branch, and firms must check whether more services are needed before an ATM is switched off. "We hope that the government will continue to monitor the situation and will be able to act if necessary," Ms Abrahams said. ATMs which charge a fee are disappearing much faster than those that do not.
More than one in five surcharging ATMs closed between 2021 and 2024, compared to six per cent of free machines. Nick Quin, head of financial inclusion at LINK, said: "As more people are choosing to pay for things digitally or with contactless payments, it does mean that we are using less cash and as a consequence, we have fewer cash machines.".