A “Tell Sid”-style sale of NatWest shares to the public by the government has been scrapped amid fears that it would have cost taxpayers as much as £450 million.
The plan to offload part of the state’s near-20 per cent stake in the FTSE 100 bank to individual investors had been floated by the last Conservative government in November.
However, Rachel Reeves revealed that the new Labour government had axed the initiative because it was “a bad use of taxpayers’ money”. The chancellor said: “Having considered advice, I have concluded that a retail share sale offer would involve significant discounts that could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds. It would therefore not represent value for money and it will not go ahead.”
Estimates released