Financial exclusion reinforces poverty and disadvantage, impacting the lives of individuals, their families and the wider community. Tonybey Hall has developed in-depth knowledge of the factors at household level, but also in the wider neighbourhood, including access to free ATMs.

To help understand which areas to focus on, the GLA have been working with Toynbee Hall to map access to physical banking and ATM services and overlay this with communities who are particularly reliant on these services.

The first step has been to create a map for a single London borough using factors that were identified through face to face surveys and the experience of field workers. Starting with the location of free ATMS, a ‘catchment’ was created from the road and path network. Areas of housing served by a single ATM were identified. Crime data was also used to identify areas that people would avoid on their way to or at the ATM.

Using previous research into factors associated with ‘Digital Exclusion’ and reliance on cash, residential areas were identified with high proportion of people likely to rely on cash. These were compared to access to safe, free ATMs. Based on feedback, we will refine some of the analysis and look to replicate the work across London.