Banking (Special Provisions) Bill

The Chief Secretary shakes her head, so I hope that she will take the opportunity to clarify the matter. Northern Rock owns a seller's share of the mortgages that are supplied to Granite to underlie the securitisation package to provide funding back to Northern Rock. If the security package is not continually replenished with fresh mortgages for Granite, Granite's structure will implode. That is the contractual basis of the securitisation documentation. If default occurs, the seller's share in Northern Rock will also have to be sold at a fire sale price to fulfil obligations. If there is insufficient confidence that new mortgages will be put into Granite through the mechanism under national ownership, which requires continuing business flows, the Government and the taxpayer are at significant risk of sustaining a much larger loss than the Government have let the House believe. It is important that the Chief Secretary tackles that point.