NEW YORK, January 2, 2026, 05:38 ET
- Lloyds Bank’s branch locator shows a wave of permanent closures through January, starting on Jan. 8.
- Halifax, also owned by Lloyds Banking Group, has published its own list of planned branch closures. halifax.co.uk
Lloyds Bank will close 17 branches across Britain in January, according to closure notices posted on the lender’s branch locator website. The first closures are scheduled for Jan. 8, including the bank’s branch in Gillingham, Dorset.
The timetable matters now because it lands at the start of the year, when households and small businesses often still depend on counter services for cash deposits, withdrawals and in-person support. In many towns, losing a local branch means longer travel for basic banking, particularly for older customers and people who do not bank online.
The branch notices say closures are permanent and note that LINK has reviewed local access to cash under Financial Conduct Authority rules. LINK is the UK’s main cash machine network; its “access to cash” review assesses whether replacement services are needed in the area.
Closures span England and Wales, with branches in Ammanford in Carmarthenshire shutting on Jan. 12 and Chester-le-Street in County Durham on Jan. 14, the notices show.
Other sites are scheduled to close days later, including the branch in Fleet, Hampshire on Jan. 13, according to the bank’s notice.
The late-January closures include Hedon in East Yorkshire, which is due to close permanently on Jan. 28, the branch locator shows.
On its branch-closure page, Lloyds says some affected areas have plans for a “banking hub” or visits from a community banker. A banking hub is a shared, in-person site intended to provide basic cash and counter services when full branches leave a town. Lloyds Bank
Bank of Scotland, another Lloyds Banking Group brand, has published its own branch-closure list, including Scottish towns such as Montrose, Peebles and Stranraer. Bank of Scotland
Lloyds Banking Group CEO Charlie Nunn has argued that physical branches still matter for some customers, even as the bank invests in digital tools. “In the moments that matter, people still do want to go and talk to people,” Nunn said at a November presentation.
The UK banking industry has been shrinking its high-street footprint for years as more customers move online. Consumer group Which? said in a May 2024 analysis that more than 6,000 bank branches had closed since 2015, with NatWest Group and Barclays among the biggest cutters. Which?
Lloyds has pointed to falling in-branch activity in past announcements. In January 2025, the group said it would close 136 branches between May 2025 and March 2026 and reported 10 million fewer in-branch transactions in 2024 than a year earlier.
