SNP Call For Equality of Treatment For Farepak Savers

SNP Councillors on Falkirk Council will seek to commit Falkirk Council to pressing for equality of treatment for Farepak savers after the UK Labour Government offered assurances on the security of Northern Rock deposit holders.

A motion calling on Falkirk Council to support a lobby of local Labour MPs to support equality of treatment will be debated at the next meeting of Falkirk Council to be held on 5 December.

The Nationalists are angry that customers of troubled Northern Rock have had their savings guaranteed by government while savers with Farepak are still waiting for the 5% refund they were promised last year when the savings company went into liquidation.

The motion sponsor, John Constable said,

"There is something wrong when one set of savers are treated differently from another set of savers and that basic inequality is something we want to see tackled.

The SNP has no problem with the UK government protecting the savings of North Rock deposit holders but savers with Farepak must have the same right and protections.

Those who lost out with Farepak are amongst the most vulnerable within our communities who were acting in the responsible manner of saving rather than borrowing urged by the government. For them to see other savers being offered full protection when 5% of losses is all Farepak savers can look forward to is unjust.

What we want is equality of treatment and I hope that Labour, Independent and Conservative members will agree with us on that.

We also want our local MPs to be more pro-active in pursuing this equality of action and so we are calling on Michael Connarty and Eric Joyce to support the SNP position on this and work with us for a fair deal for Farepak savers."

Notice of Motion

"Council notes with concern the difference in the treatment of Farepak savers with those of the Northern Rock Building Society by the UK Labour government.

Council believes that both sets of savers should receive the same government protections and calls on the UK government to match the assurance offered to North Rock Savers for those of Farepak.

Council also agrees to ask both Falkirk MPs to support this stance and take this matter up with the appropriate government Ministers and report back to council the results of approaches to our local MPs and their actions in seeking equality of treatment for Farepak customers."