Ann & Robert WallaceAnn and Robert Wallace live in Bedlington, Northumberland. Ann, who has retired as a medical auditor monitoring the quality of patient care for a local NHS trust, and her husband were both mortgage holders and savers with the Northern Rock. They acquired their shares when the company was demutualised as a building society a decade ago.
They regarded the shares as their retirement nest egg and a cushion for their old age and something to be kept in case of a “rainy day”. They felt it ‘was nice to know we had an asset which we could fall back upon should we need it. That has now been taken away and we will just have to live with the loss which as a retired couple we can no longer replace.’
The loss of our shares has hit them hard, but they know that many others are in a worse situation, as many of the workers at Northern Rock were encouraged to purchase shares in the company and now, having lost their savings, they face the loss of their jobs as well.
They feel the Government is totally responsible for their plight. “They created a financial regulator, the FSA which was supposed to protect people like us. When the FSA was found to be totally inept and had failed to do what it was designed to do, the Government should have accepted responsibility for the failings of this institution.” Ann and Robert are two of the plaintiffs in the application for a judicial review.
