NEW research from Which? suggests that more than 100 UK postcode districts don’t have a cashpoint.

The findings come days before the cash machine network LINK’s January 31 deadline for announcing whether or not it will go ahead with plans to reduce the fee paid to its ATM providers by 20 per cent over the next four years.

Brian Woods, a regional chairman for the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), said: “This new research shows that the UK’s cash machine network is already failing small businesses, particularly in rural areas and tourist hotspots where cash flow is absolutely vital to local growth. If funding for cashpoint providers is cut, things could rapidly go from bad to worse.

“What’s really worrying about LINK’s proposals is that it’s the cash machine providers with a majority share of the remote ATM market that are most concerned about a potential drop in funding. As is so often the case, it will be rural small businesses that are hit hardest by inadequate investment.

“Small firms now find themselves between a rock and a hard place when it comes to customer payments. On the one hand, unable to recover the various costs they incur when processing card payments. On the other, faced with customers who are finding it harder and harder to access cash because of an increasingly threatened bank branch and cash machine network.”