Northern Rock

Andrew Love Excerpts

Monday 21st November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

My hon. Friend will understand from his own business experience that received advice can be subject to commercial confidentiality. I assure him that we looked carefully at the remutualisation of Northern Rock—that is why I went before his all-party group. We reached out to people in the mutuals sector who wanted to see the remutualisation of Northern Rock but, sadly, no one came up with a viable and workable plan to enable that to happen.

[Mr Andrew Love (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op)]

I remind the Minister that UKFI made it absolutely clear at the start of the process that it was looking for short-term maximisation of the cash value of Northern Rock. That precluded any sensible mutual from entering the process. This deal is a disaster—we are losing money hand over fist on it. Would it not have been sensible in the circumstances, recognising market conditions, to have gone for a much longer-term deal with a mutual, which would have provided financial benefits as well as delivering benefits to the consumer?

[Mr Hoban]

I just point out to the hon. Gentleman that the mandate for UKFI was to maximise value for money for taxpayers, and that mandate was set by the previous Government.