The scheme set up by the Government to assess the value of Northern Rock shares, for the purposes of deciding whether or not compensation was due to shareholders, concluded that without government support the shares would be valueless.

A group of shareholders challenged the basis under which the exercise was carried out and took their fight to the Upper Tribunal, which concluded that the nil valuation should stand and that there is therefore no compensation payable to former shareholders of ‘the Rock’.

The shares will therefore stand as ‘nil value’ shares, the only value of which is to provide an allowable capital loss to be set against capital gains.