Staff at high street bank get £1,000 pay rise to help with cost of living crisis

Staff at The Co-operative Bank are to receive a £1,000 pay rise to help with the cost of living crisis.

The Manchester-headquartered bank has confirmed plans to increase the annual salaries of 95% of its employees from September.

It added that the rise will be available to those members of staff not already on the highest wages.

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The move comes after the bank announced a pre-tax profit of £61.9m for the six months to the end of June this year, up from the £21.4m it posted for the same period in 2021.

Its total income also increased from £149.4m to £208.2m.

Chief executive Nick Slape said: "We have made significant progress in the delivery of our strategy in the first half of 2022.

"The statutory profit before tax of £61.9m and underlying profit before tax of £63.6m reflect sustained quarter-on-quarter growth.

"These results are better than anticipated at the start of the year and therefore, looking ahead, we have upgraded our outlook for 2022 whilst increasing the investment to be made available for customer service and simplification initiatives.

"Our low-risk balance sheet, along with the recent successful capital issuance, support our customer-focussed goals to grow the bank from an efficient and resilient foundation.

"While the economic outlook remains uncertain as we wait to see the full impact of higher inflation and cost of living pressures, we remain committed to helping customers and colleagues during these challenging times and services are available to anyone requiring support.

"We made the decision in the first quarter to make a one-off payment to lower-paid colleagues, and we have also committed that from September we will increase