Reacting to the sudden news that Norwich and Peterborough Building Society is to close down by the end of the year, the Gibraltar Social Democrats have said that this is very bad news for Gibraltar coming so soon after the announcement by Barclays Bank. 

Daniel Feetham the Leader of the Opposition commented, ‘Our immediate concern is the impact that this decision will have on the employees who will be losing their jobs.  Those individuals and families require as much support as possible and that must be the top priority concern at the moment.  Quite apart from the very worrying impact on these employees, Norwich and Peterborough is a well-recognised brand name and we will need to assess very carefully what impact this will have on the future lending requirements of our community and, indeed, confidence.  This would be bad enough on its own but will it be a particularly hard pill to swallow for Gibraltar as a whole coming so soon after Barclays Bank.  For now we do not intend to make any further comment until all the facts are known’.

The announcement of the closure came this morning to staff members of the Building Society.