Bailed-out bank RBS slapped its customers with more bad news yesterday after announcing plans to close 44 branches across Britain — including 14 classed as “last banks in town.”

The taxpayer-backed lender claimed the decision follows a 30 per cent drop in branch transactions since 2010.

RBS, which is just over 80 per cent owned by the government, said the so-called last banks in town that were closing are generally only open for a few hours a week and see just one or two customers an hour.

The Unite union reminded RBS that it pledged “not to close last branch in town” in its customer charter in 2010.

But a spokesman for RBS said that banking had changed “significantly over the last few years as more and more of our customers are banking with us where and when it is convenient for them.”

He added: “We have to adapt to what our customers want, which is why we’re investing in a range of other ways our customers can bank with us, including online and telephone banking, our mobile app, and in any one of the Post Office’s 11,500 branches across the UK.”

But campaign group Move Your Money said that RBS had “consistently undermined the interests of its customers and wider society since being bailed out in 2008.”

The group’s campaign director Charlotte Webster added: “It’s no surprise then to see the bank let down its customers once again by upping sticks and leaving town — even where it’s promised not to do so.

“Banks of this scale just can’t be trusted to take its customers’ needs into account, even when the only reason it’s still around is because of our support.”

Unite national officer Rob Macgregor said that it was a stealth attack on local communities.

He said: “While RBS senior executives get millions of pounds in payouts, there are communities up and down the country being denied access to a local bank. George Osborne whose own constituency is affected, should intervene and demand that RBS rethinks these decisions.

“There has been no proper consultation with customers in advance of the announced closures and there is a real fear that these closures will hurt the communities affected.”