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Rock boss ready to cut jobs

Northern Rock is close to submitting details of its plans to axe 2,000 jobs to ministers, the bank’s chairman has said. Ron Sandler would not confirm reports they will be delivered this week, however.

There will be a 90-day consultation period with trade unions before the cuts are implemented. The jobs will be shed gradually “over some period of time”, Mr Sandler said.

The bank was nationalised in February after Chancellor Alistair Darling rejected private rescue bids. Mr Sandler said at the time the business would have to be slimmed down to restore its profitabilty and repay £25bn in Treasury loans.

It had previously been assumed the redundancies would be spread over three years. But the latest reports suggest it will happen in months, with the vast majority of job cuts affecting the North East.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .