Temporary public ownership of Northern Rock ‘best option for taxpayers’
February 19, 2008 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
Temporary public ownership of Northern Rock is the best option for taxpayers, claims prime minister Gordon Brown.
Speaking during his monthly press conference with chancellor Alistair Darling, Mr Brown said, after considering the two takeover bids, nationalisation was the best option for the troubled bank.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Brown said: “We will have and always will put the interests of taxpayers first.”
“It was the best decision to protect depositors, mortgages holders and employees of Northern Rock,” he continued.
The Prime Minister stated that this was a time of global financial turbulence, with a downturn in the US and added that the actions of Mr Darling had made the UK better prepared.
Mr Brown also said that the test of economic competence was running a stable economy, and in the UK growth was higher than any G7 competitors, with strong interest rates and inflation.
Meanwhile, the addition of the company’s balance sheet already to the public finances, has boosted Britain’s debt burden above 40 percent of gross domestic product, reports Bloomberg.
