Barratt may offer some hope in a sea of gloom
RESULTS from Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group are expected to make grim reading this week, but hard-pressed Newcastle- based builder Barratt may give some hope for the resilience of the beleaguered housing industry.
Part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group are likely to produce losses of well over £30bn.
In 2007 – the year the credit crunch first erupted – RBS, Lloyds TSB and HBOS posted profits of around £20bn between them.
But RBS is now 68% owned by taxpayers, who have pumped in £20bn to keep it afloat, while Lloyds TSB has rescued HBOS and nearly half the new bank is in public hands.
RBS warned in January that losses could reach £28bn, the biggest in UK corporate history.
There may well also be bad news for employees of the bank after further speculation that the firm could cut up to 20,000 jobs.
This would come on top of the 2,300 British jobs already cut.
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