Greg Hands has stressed Labour’s decision to revive Northern Rock’s mortgage business shows the “chaos” at the heart of government decision-making.
Alistair Darling today announced plans for Northern Rock to take on about £5 billion in new mortgages this year and up to £9 billion from 2010. This will be financed with money from new deposits, repayments on existing loans and more government money.
Greg, the Shadow Treasury Minister, said, “We have been calling on the government for some time to free up credit in the economy and to make sure credit flows."
But he stressed that today’s announcement was a “volte-face” because, until now, Northern Rock had been under orders to wind up its mortgage operation and essentially to close down business.
He warned, "I think there will be a contrast between existing customers who are facing repossession and all these thousands of new customers who are getting very generous terms."