The Community Access to Cash Pilot (CACP) initiative has announced eight locations across the UK that will be participating in trials to help address challenges of improving cash access and acceptance.

Following applications from across the UK, the successful communities will be working with the banking industry to identify sustainable solutions to keeping cash viable for individuals and businesses.

This will include supporting local businesses to accept and bank cash, ensuring that individuals can access cash, working with local councils to ensure that the right infrastructure is in place, education and support on digital inclusion, and working with new and existing financial services providers to create innovative solutions to meet needs.

CACP is chaired by Natalie Ceeney, the author of the Access to Cash Review, and brings together the resources and expertise of the financial services industry with those of the Access to Review panel. The panel will also work closely with a wide range of consumer groups and charities to bring in depth expertise to help support the work.

The list of successful communities includes: Ampthill in Bedforshire, Burslem in Staffordshire, Botton Village in North Yorkshire, Cambuslang in South Lanarkshire, Denny in Falkirk, Hay on Wye in Powys, Lulworth in Dorset and Rochford in Essex.

These sites were chosen based on the location, the issues the communities faced, the strength of their submission and commitment to the pilot. A small number of further sites will be confirmed in the coming weeks.

The next steps will be to evaluate the success of the pilot communities, to ensure they are sustainable and scalable, which will allow CACP to recommend solutions which can be adopted on a national basis. The government has already committed to introduce legislation to support the cash infrastructure, so CACP's aim is that these pilots can inform longer term government action, as well as support local communities right now.

The pilot follows the recent report from UK Finance showing cash use now represents less than a quarter (23 per cent) of all payments in the UK, a 15 per cent drop year-on-year. These numbers were taken before the Coronavirus Crisis with LINK, the UK’s main cash machine network, showing a 60 per cent year-on-year fall in volumes during the early part of the lockdown.

Ceeney commented: “Over the past decade we’ve seen a massive shift from cash to digital payments, and COVID-19 has accelerated that trend further - but we know that digital payments don’t yet work for everyone, and for many individuals and communities, cash remains essential.

"But the world is changing – we can’t just magic back our old bank branch and ATM infrastructure. Instead, we need to use innovation to develop new solutions as well as harness tried and tested approaches to meet people’s needs."

Economic secretary to the Treasury and City Minister John Glen added: “Digital payments have brought huge benefits, but we know that cash remains important to many people’s lives, so I welcome today’s announcement of the locations of the pilots, which will help inform the most effective ways of protecting access to cash at the local level, at a time when our communities mean more to us than ever."

The move comes as new research into the changing habits of 2,000 UK consumers from NTT DATA UK revealed that almost half of UK consumers will not use cash post-lockdown, a rise of 46 per cent compared to the pre-COVID-19 world.

The survey also showed that 63 per cent of UK consumers went cashless during lockdown, almost double pre-lockdown levels. During lockdown, 25 to 34 year-olds eschewed cash the most (78 per cent) whereas those aged 55 and over had the lowest rates of going cashless (51 per cent).

After lockdown has ended, nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of UK consumers over the age of 55 said they will continue using cash – the highest rate of any demographic category in NTT DATA’s research.

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