David Fleming, national officer of Unite, said: “Serious consideration should be given for Northern Rock to be returned to mutuality to give it a fighting chance to deliver the recovery it desperately needs. While the coalition claims to support a diverse financial services industry, their pursuit of a private buyer demonstrates this is merely rhetoric.”
Northern Rock was formed in 1965 by the merger of two mutuals – the Northern Counties building society, founded in 1850, and the Rock, founded in 1865. It was a traditional and successful mutual, offering secure deposits for savers and mortgages for people buying a home, until, in 1997, it was demutualised and floated on the Stock Exchange.
Chuka Umunna, the Labour MP for Streatham, who is spearheading a cross-party campaign to remutualise the business, said: “A mutual future has many advantages, including encouraging a more responsible attitude to risk in financial services, promoting competition and choice, increasing the power of consumers and rooting financial institutions in the communities they serve. If we are serious about changing the way the sector operates – and its attitudes – what better way to start than by remutualising Northern Rock?”
