---

Banking Bill

Before speaking to this amendment I must declare an interest in both Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock. As an investor my natural instinct is to encourage the protection of enterprise value. I have much sympathy with the amendment and recognise that it is important that the overall value of an enterprise, including the value of shareholders’ equity, expressed so ably by the noble Lord, Lord Newby, is legitimate, should be recognised as such and should not be ignored. I urge caution: that the pursuit of this legitimate objective does not result in taxpayers’ money being used to shore up or create value for equity shareholders which is not deserved. Shareholders take a risk and get the rewards associated with that risk. In the same way, they must take any losses. Another caveat to enterprise value, if it ends up being included in the Bill, is that without a clear definition of what precisely is meant by the expression, there is always the possibility that lawyers might find different forms of enterprise value for which compensation could be looked for from the taxpayer. If the Minister accepts the amendment, I urge him to include a suitable definition of ““enterprise value””. In summary, these Benches support the amendment. However, I hope that the comments which have been made will be considered when looking at it.