Autumn Statement: Government to sell £25bn of RBS shares

The UK government is set to sell more than £25 billion of Royal Bank of Scotland shares over the course of this parliament.

The RBS headquarters at Gogarburn in Edinburgh. Picture: Greg Macvean

Documents published alongside today’s Autumn Statement and Spending Review said the move would raise a further £5.8bn for the public coffers in 2020-21.

In August, the government raised £2.1bn with an initial sale of shares in RBS, which is now 72.9 per cent owned the taxpayer.

The government is also set to offer shares in fellow bailed-out lender Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) to the public in the spring, as part of its plan to fully exit from its stake in the owner of Bank of Scotland.

It said: “Over £16bn has been recovered for the taxpayer through the government’s programme of LBG disposals, generating a surplus of £1.2bn compared with the original investment price and reducing the taxpayer’s stake to under 10 per cent.”