Nationalisation of Northern Rock that Northern Rock was to be nationalised claiming that the private bids did not offer "sufficient value for money to the taxpayer" and thus the bank was to be brought under a "temporary period of public ownership". The government is the sole shareholder through UK Financial Investments Limited, and the Bank is managed at "arm's length" on a commercial basis by an independent board under Ron Sandler. Customers are not affected by this change. A Government-appointed arbitration panel will decide on a fair price for the compensation to be offered to investors for their shares. Prior to the markets opening
Nationalisation of Northern Rock with fresh mortgages and bondholders will be repaid as old mortgages expire. On 18 March, Northern Rock announced the measures that it would be taking to reduce the government debt within three to four years. The bank is to cut around a third of jobs (2,000) by 2011; on 1 May the bank confirmed that they would be initialising talks with the unions and that most of the job losses would be later in 2008. As of 30 September 2008 the bank is repaying the loan well ahead of target, owing a net balance of only £11.5 billion of the