Dame Meg Hillier

My hon. Friend raises an important point, because there are many excluded groups. There is an important challenge here, too. I am proud to be the Member of Parliament for Hackney South and Shoreditch, representing a very high percentage of fintech companies. Of course, those companies never had branches on the street, so it is not unreasonable for the larger banks, which have had a network of high street banks, to say that the playing field is not level. Some tech innovation has been amazing, making banking very accessible to some people, but there are still points in life—for instance, death, or maturity to 18 when products have to be turned from junior to adult—when we need to have conversations face to face. Even if it is not very often, there will be times when even the most digitally-savvy will need to have face-to-face contact. I recognise this is a difficult challenge for the Government to wrestle with, and there is no easy, simple answer, but it is important if there is to be financial inclusion. The danger is that if there is no proper ability to have contact with trusted banks, people get advice from elsewhere—a friend or a relative—that is not good advice; I have seen that in my own constituency. There is a danger that people get driven to the wrong place if we do not have a lock on some sort of provision, though I recognise that particular challenge for the Government.