Lloyds Banking Group has announced it is pulling out of four towns in Kent as part of 100 branch closures nationally, resulting in more than 200 job losses across the country.

Between July and October, it will shut Lloyds sites in Broadstairs, Hawkhurst, New Ash Green and Tenterden.

The bank blamed the move on the falling number of customers using its locations.

The shutdowns are part of 200 closures announced in July last year – when it confirmed it was cutting 3,000 jobs.

It told staff this morning it will close 54 Lloyds branches, 22 Halifax sites and 24 Bank of Scotland branches across the country.

A spokesman said: “These branch closures – previously announced in July 2016 – are in response to changing customer behaviour, and the reduced number of transactions being made in branches.

“Our branches will continue to play a vital role in our multi-channel approach to meeting the full range of customer needs, and we expect to continue to have the biggest branch network in the UK.”

The move has angered the Unite union which said the big four banks have closed more than 1,500 retail bank locations since 2014.

“The industry must halt these endless branch closure programs and open its eyes to what these closures are doing to rural communities, disabled customers and the small business customers who depend on access to a local branch...” - Rob MacGregor, Unite

Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, said: “The continuous stream of branch closures announced by the UK’s retail bank branches appears to show no signs of ending.

“The loss of a further 100 local banks will be painful for high streets across the country to absorb.

“Unite is angered that another 200 staff have today been told that their job will be cut due to their branch shutting.

“Lloyds Banking Group’s rationale for branch closures is the claimed customer preference towards the use of technology across banking.

“However this simply doesn’t ring true when it’s clear that many customers still value the face to face engagement with experienced and knowledgeable bank staff.

“The industry must halt these endless branch closure programs and open its eyes to what these closures are doing to rural communities, disabled customers and the small business customers who depend on access to a local branch.”

Federation of Small Businesses national chairman Mike Cherry said: “It is very worrying to see yet more local bank branches being shut down, leaving small business customers without the services they rely on.

“Cash still remains an important element of many small firms and it needs to be banked at the end of the day.

“For some small businesses online banking is not always a viable substitute, not least because of poor broadband coverage in many rural areas.

“While there are moves by some banks to allow basic services to be accessed in Post Office branches, the Post Office is not yet able to step in as an alternative with full business services.

“The onus is now on Lloyds to take steps to ensure access to banking is being protected under the terms of the access to banking protocol.”