Everyone Has Legal Right To Use Cash - EXCEPT British Public!

It’s only the 6th of January and already brilliant news for cash and Payments Choice! The Netherlands's will soon be the latest of the UK’s neighbours - joining Belgium, Denmark, France, Norway and Spain - to give their citizens the legal right to spend their cash, when and where they choose.

The mandatory acceptance provision was included in anti-money laundering legislation and was adopted by the Netherlands House of Representatives pre Christmas 2024.

The bill will now be submitted to the Netherlands Senate, with final approval expected on February 4, 2025.

With the Irish Republic also introducing measures obligating some businesses to accept cash, the ring of countries around the Small Island is now complete.

Governments of every flavour - Centre, Left and Right - have recognised that cash is vital in any democratic society, as a payment method, a choice the public deserve and a pillar of democracy.

The UK stance - “It is for individual organisations to decide whether to accept cash as a form of payment” - is now quite obviously untenable.

Why should the acceptance of cash be left to the whims of individual businesses in the UK, when so many other democracies have taken legal measures to ensure the public have the right to choose how they pay?

UK Payment Choice legislation is required in 2025, whether as a stand alone measure or part of a wider bill.

Either will do very nicely.

Over to you, Tulip Siddiq at HM Treasury.