When it comes to the role that cash – hard cash – plays in the running of our creaking economy, I am not for turning.

Whatever the banks, government agencies and the big payment processing companies (US-owned) may say about the consumer benefits of moving to a digital payment world, my view is simple. 

The UK must become a nation where cash – good old pounds and pence, notes and coins – is universally accepted.

Whether it’s paying for pricey parking at a council-controlled car park, purchasing a last-minute ticket at a train station, or buying a coffee and a pain aux raisins on a Saturday morning after a week of hard graft, we should always be given the option to pay with cash.

I say this despite the evidence of the map to the right which confirms that cash usage in some parts of the country (as measured by cash withdrawals from ATMs) has fallen off a proverbial cliff over the past six years. In some cases, by more than 50 per cent.

This drop-off, which varies widely across the country, is not just a result of reduced consumer demand for cash and the widespread closure of ATMs and bank branches.

Cash usage in some parts of the country has fallen off a proverbial cliff over the past six years. In some cases, by more than 50% 

It is also a reflection of many retailers giving up on cash because of the difficulty in handling it (security issues) and finding somewhere to bank it.

It is my view that the right to use cash to pay for everyday goods and services should be enshrined in law – sooner rather than later. Without the protection of the law, I fear that cash will die a slow death. 

And while they may not say it publicly, it’s what the financial institutions ultimately want. It’s their Holy Grail. A country without cash.

Yes, call me a Luddite: I won’t be offended. Believe me, I’ve been called far worse over the years.

Call me old fashioned: I am, although if old fashioned means being a champion of choice and customer service par excellence, I’ll wear the badge all day long.

But make no mistake, without the right to payment choice, financial life will become more challenging, especially for some of the most vulnerable in our society. 

For example, the elderly, the unbanked and those with learning disabilities or mental health issues: many of whom rely heavily on cash.

Yet it’s not just these segments of society that will suffer if physical cash disappears. We will all become more financially vulnerable, even the digitally savvy. 

In pushing us towards a cashless world, the banks and the payment companies are exposing us (consumers and businesses) to ever greater risks and costs.

Higher risks in terms of fraud and regular payment system failures, preventing us from shopping or accessing our own money.

Think Marks & Spencer’s IT meltdown last week which meant contactless payments were routinely declined in their stores without a four-digit PIN being entered (my payments were rejected even after entering my PIN – I successfully used my card elsewhere minutes later).

Think Barclays’ IT failure in late January this year which meant some customers were unable to pay tax due ahead of the deadline for self-assessment.

And as sure as night follows day, a cashless society will result in greater costs for businesses in terms of the fees charged by some of the world’s largest corporations for processing customer payments.

The likes of Visa and Mastercard are giant money-making machines as evidenced by  the resilience of their share prices despite the antics of President Trump.

Threat: Without cash, we would be fully at the mercy of the banks. They could stop us accessing our money at the drop of a banker’s bowler hat

Profits, not the fairness of their fees, are what matters to their shareholders – not the ability of an independent trader on Wokingham High Street to make a living against a backdrop of rising costs, including punitive merchants’ fees.

With cash out of the way, what’s to stop these financial companies using their powerful market dominance to ramp up merchant fees even higher – and, God forbid, for the banks to start charging us every time we make a contactless payment? Not much, I would say.

Indeed, without cash, we would be fully at the mercy of the banks. They could stop us accessing our money at the drop of a banker’s bowler hat. Believe me, it’s where we are heading.

A report published today by the Commons Treasury committee on cash acceptance may not be as bold as I am in calling for cash payments to be accepted by all businesses and public organisations in the UK. 

But it states that there may come a time when it is necessary for HM Treasury to ‘mandate cash acceptance’ in order to protect those who depend upon physical cash to go about their everyday lives.

Some of the evidence gathered from a mix of charities and retail organisations by the committee supports such mandating. 

For example, Age UK, a charity representing the elderly, says that at some stage in the near future, the case for mandating will become ‘extremely convincing’.

The impact of dwindling cash usage is starkly highlighted by the report. Banking trade association UK Finance says that cash was used for just over half of all payments in 2013. Ten years later, the percentage had fallen to 12 per cent.

UK Finance argues, predictably, that this reflects a preference among consumers to make payments by card or digitally.

Yet I don’t believe this is the whole story. You can’t use cash if its access is restricted where you live – through the closure of local banks or cash machines. 

And you can’t use it if your local coffee shop, car park or leisure centre says they won’t accept it.

For the committee’s report, cash machine network Link provided details of the drop off in the amount of cash withdrawn from ATMs in each of the country’s 650 parliamentary constituencies over the six years to the end of 2024.

The variation in the fall in cash usage is eyebrow-raising as the map highlights. 

Those suffering the sharpest decreases (50 per cent-plus) are primarily urban constituencies in central London (for example, Holborn and St Pancras and the Cities of London and Westminster), and the likes of Bath, Edinburgh, Leeds, Norwich and Sheffield.

Running dry: In some parts of the country (as measured by cash withdrawals from ATMs) has fallen off a proverbial cliff over the past six years. In some cases, by more than 50%

In contrast, those constituencies with the smallest drops in cash usage are predominantly (not exclusively) found in more financially challenged areas of the country such as Bradford, Middlesbrough and Stoke-on-Trent (no offence intended).

Indeed, the Treasury committee uses Link’s data to suggest a correlation between cash withdrawals and child poverty rates.

In other words, constituencies with high volumes of cash withdrawals (the likes of Birmingham Ladywood and Blackpool South) often have high child poverty rates.

In contrast, the likes of the North Cotswolds and Mid-Buckinghamshire (affluent constituencies) have smaller cash withdrawal volumes and below-average child poverty rates.

But the missing part of the jigsaw in this analysis is how these cash withdrawal figures have been impacted by the increasing number of retailers who refuse to accept cash.

I am sure that a fair chunk of the fall-off in withdrawals is explained by this. Indeed, the report quotes the result of a poll late last year by Link which showed that half of respondents said they had been somewhere in the previous eight weeks that did not accept cash or discouraged its use.

Dame Meg Hillier, chairman of the Treasury committee, believes there ‘may’ (not ‘will’) come a time when cash acceptance by retail facing businesses should become mandatory.

The Government begs to differ. In the report, Emma Reynolds, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, says the Government’s focus remains on ensuring national access to cash through a mix of banking hubs (community banks), post offices and cash machines. 

‘We have no plans to regulate businesses, big or small, to compel them to accept cash,’ she adds.

I think she’s making a big mistake. Greater access counts for nothing if businesses won’t accept cash. Greater access and acceptance go hand in hand. They don’t work in isolation.

Two years ago, 71 per cent of British adults surveyed by The Payments Choice Alliance said they would like to see a law passed guaranteeing that they could use their cash when and where they choose.

If I had been asked to participate, I would have given the same answer. Two years on, I remain more convinced than ever. 

Cash is precious and we should not allow the big financial institutions to swipe it away from us.

• Do you agree that cash acceptance should be mandated by the Government? Email jeff.prestridge@dailymail.co.uk