MPs slam N Rock number-crunchers

Accountants for crisis-hit Northern Rock have been attacked by MPs for failing to spot funding problems.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) faced calls to repay the £1.8 million it charged the mortgage bank for consultancy and auditing fees.

MPs at the Treasury Select Committee hearing demanded to know why PWC had made more money from advising Northern Rock on obtaining funding - from £1.3 million - than from auditing its books.

MP Michael Fallon said: "You took fees of £1.8 million last year. The taxpayer has had to lend Northern Rock £29 billion. Don't you think you need to repay your fees?"

And shareholders are fuming over revelations that staff at Northern Rock are being given a pay rise and Christmas bonus.

Northern Rock was plunged into crisis in September when it announced it had agreed emergency funding with the Bank of England, sparking the first run on a UK bank for nearly 150 years.

It is now thought to have borrowed £29 billion from the Bank.

Despite this, the mortgage lender is giving all 6,000 employees a £200 bonus and a pay rise 2 per cent above inflation.

Shareholders have described the reward as disgraceful and entirely inappropriate.

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