Banking: Northern Rock Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Banking: Northern Rock

Lord Hamilton of Epsom Excerpts
Thursday 30th June 2011

(12 years, 10 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Sassoon Portrait Lord Sassoon
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I have made clear on this and previous occasions that the Government regard mutualisation as a desirable model. It would be wrong to say that it is the best model, as the noble Lord has suggested, but, indeed, we want to see variety of provision of financial services in this country by organisations with different models, of which mutualisation should be one.

Lord Hamilton of Epsom Portrait Lord Hamilton of Epsom
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Will the noble Lord explain how we can have mutualisation and the taxpayer get his money back at the same time?

Lord Sassoon Portrait Lord Sassoon
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My Lords, the overarching aim of any sales process, as well as getting a clear exit, is to obtain best value for the taxpayer. There are of course tensions between that objective and certain methods of sale, and that is precisely what the experts conducting the sale will assess.