I rise in support of new clause 17. The Bill is central to the Government’s commitment to long-term economic sustainability while also ensuring that our banking system is fair and provides reasonable protections for the vulnerable, including continued access to cash. Now that we are outside the EU, it is vital that we take this opportunity to build an even more agile and an even more muscular internationally facing financial centre. To do that, we need regulation that is designed to unlock growth, that will attract international investment into the UK, and that will also attract the best talent into our financial services sector, while not forgetting our equally important duty to level up financial services across the UK, including continued access to cash, to which I wish to turn straight away.

I welcome the wording of the Bill about providing “reasonable” access to cash. I appreciate that the Government have a balancing act to perform, given a fast-moving sector, changing consumer patterns and the need to provide protections. It is a balance that the Government have provided with this “reasonable” access to cash.

I wish to place on record that in picturesque Leigh-on-Sea, a part of wonderful Southend West, we have lost every single one of our high street banks over the past four years. In a constituency such as Southend West, where over one fifth of the population are over 65 and more than 6% are over 80—significantly more than the national average—local banking services are vital. Senior citizens in Southend West do not want to bank online, they do not want to bank on an app, and they should not have to. That is why I am working with fantastic organisations such as LINK and OneBanx to set up a local banking hub.

However, access to cash is not the only reason elderly people need to visit a branch. A point made very powerfully today by my hon. Friend Harriett Baldwin and touched on by my right hon. Friend Vicky Ford and my hon. Friend Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown is the need for personal financial advice. For many people, visiting their branch is the only way to make sure they are getting the best possible interest rates on their savings.

There is a piece of work to be done there, because I believe that every saver should have the opportunity to get the best possible rate of return on their money. Reasonable access to financial advice is essential—that is what levelling up financial services means. When interest rates move, banks must pass those changes on swiftly to borrowers and savers alike.

Sadly, that is not always the case. On 29 November, the Bank of England published a report highlighting that UK savers are receiving on average 0.52% on their interest-bearing sight deposits, an increase of only 0.4% this year. Yet we know that during that time the UK banking base rate has risen by a massive 2.9% to its current level of 3%. According to the Bank of England, £998 billion—almost £1 trillion—of hard-working taxpayers’ savings is in low-earning savings accounts, earning an average of 0.52%.

Many of those savers are elderly and financially unsophisticated and they do not have access to sophisticated financial advice. That is why it is so important that we provide access to that advice, so I welcome the comments by my hon. Friend the Minister that he is going to take this point away. To put the Bank of England figures into perspective, they equate to UK savers losing £15 billion or more a year. In Southend West, that equates to £19 million a year or £270 per person.

I conclude by reminding the Minister—not that he needs any reminding—that the Financial Conduct Authority’s first objective is to promote effective competition in the interest of consumers, and that it is specifically charged with identifying where firms may exploit the difficulties that customers face in making choices. I welcome this Bill and look forward to seeing the FCA step up to its greater responsibilities. Everybody who lives in Southend West deserves a fair rate of return on their hard-earned savings and to have fair access to banking facilities. I urge the FCA and the Treasury to use their groundbreaking new powers to make sure that happens.