NOONAN HAS 'CHATTY' MEETING WITH GEITHNER - The US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner was scheduled to spend just half an hour with Minister for Finance Michael Noonan when they met for the first time late on Tuesday, but the men talked for more than 45 minutes, says the Irish Times. "It was I [who] had to finish it up because I had other meetings," Mr Noonan said. "He was in quite a chatty mood, we could have stayed a bit longer." Mr Geithner said he would use his influence in Europe to seek lower interest rates for the Irish, Greek and Portuguese bailouts. "American politicians at the top level, in my experience, are the best briefed people in the world," Mr Noonan said. "Tim Geithner had a very detailed knowledge of Ireland. He is as well briefed as my colleagues in Ecofin would be." The treasury secretary gave Mr Noonan his personal phone numbers. "If something happens suddenly, I have someone to talk to," he said. Mr Noonan sought advice from investors and officials in New York and Washington. All gave the same counsel, he said. ''Stick to the programme. Restructure the banks as quickly as possible, which we are doing anyway. And keep controlling the deficits, get the economy back to growth again and pick up confidence at home so that the export-led growth is matched by growth in the domestic economy."
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AFFORDABLE HOUSING SCHEME AXED - Affordable housing schemes will be scrapped under new plans to encourage people to rent, instead of purchase, their home. The Irish Independent says that Housing Minister Willie Penrose will today announce a major shift in housing policy. The State will no longer help middle-income earners to buy a property by subsidising the cost. Affordable homes were offered to first-time buyers who could not afford to purchase on the open market because prices were too high. Affordable homes were different from social housing, where a local authority provided a house and the tenant paid rent. Under the affordable scheme, owners had to live in the property and could earn up to €60,000 a year. Subsidies of up to 40% of the asking price were on offer, and in the region of 30,000 affordable homes were sold since the early 1990s. However, the new housing policy says that 'over-stimulation' of the housing market was a key factor in the economic downturn, and that people chose to buy homes 'on the basis of investment'. It says that if a household has sufficient income to rent a "high quality home in a vibrant community" but lacks the money to buy an equivalent home, that household has no need of any state assistance.
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NORTHERN ROCK TO SET OFF PRIVATISATION WAVE - George Osborne has taken the first step towards "getting the British taxpayer out of the business of owning banks", as he announced the sale of Northern Rock and the start of what he hopes will be a return to normality in the sector. The Financial Times says that the chancellor used his Mansion House speech to launch a vast programme of bank sales - the biggest privatisation ever seen in Europe - beginning with the relatively modest £1 billion he hopes to raise from selling Northern Rock. Mr Osborne is expected next year to sanction the beginning of sales of stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, a process which will last many years and which it is hoped will raise billions for the Treasury. Even the rescue of Northern Rock, whose collapse in 2007 heralded the start of the financial crisis, may end up turning a profit for the taxpayer, confounding predictions the Newcastle-based lender would turn out to be a disastrous liability. Mr Osborne said he favoured a straight sale of Northern Rock, a bank with about 70 branches, retail deposits of £16.7 billion and mortgage loans of £12.2 billion; market analysts expect a price tag of about £1 billion. The taxpayer has injected £1.4 billion into Northern Rock, meaning that the sale of the "good bank" could make a loss.
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BRITISH LAND DEFEATS ENGLISH HERITAGE AT BATTLE OF BROADGATE - The UK Culture Secretary has turned down a request to list Broadgate in the Square Mile, clearing the way for British Land to redevelop part of the City estate for UBS's new European headquarters. The London Independent says that English Heritage, the body charged with protecting national monuments, had asked Jeremy Hunt to consider listing the 1980s complex, which was built around the same time as the Margaret Thatcher government implemented the so-called "Big Bang" reforms that deregulated the City and financial markets. But Mr Hunt said Broadgate "does not meet the stringent criteria of historic or architectural interest required to be added to the statutory list". A letter from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport informing English Heritage of the decision, said: "[The Culture Secretary] is persuaded that the building's architectural design, decoration and craftsmanship is impressive, but not to the extent that it meets the high bar of outstanding quality." The complex was built in 1985, just one year before the Thatcher government pushed through reforms that included allowing foreign groups to purchase UK stock market firms. The site, a stone's throw from Liverpool Street Tube station, has been home to financial firms such as UBS and Royal Bank of Scotland, and is the place of work for over 30,000 people.
