Mortimer's NatWest up for redevelopment

Plans to redevelop Mortimer’s former NatWest branch have been lodged with West Berkshire Council.

The application – submitted earlier this month by Basingstoke-based developer DALLN Ltd – proposes the conversion of the building into six housing units.

The branch shut in June 2018. By the time of its closure, NatWest estimated that only 25 customers were visiting each week and transactions were down 50 per cent from 2012.

The closure was announced as part of a Berkshire-wide cutback that also claimed NatWest branches in Thatcham and Hungerford.

RBS, which owns NatWest, has wound up around 484 branches nationwide since 2018, accounting for almost half of all UK bank closures.

Smaller or more remote communities are said to have been hit particularly hard.