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George Osborne is planning a bigger programme of privatisation than Margaret Thatcher - starting with the fire-sale of RBS.

The selling of the bank will be part of plans to flog off £32billion in public assets by the Chancellor.

Reports suggest Mr Osborne could flog the first chunk of the government’s 79% holding in RBS within days.

UK Financial Investments, which oversees the taxpayers’ interest, could sell at least 5%, worth just under £2billion.

That would represent a significant loss on the 502p average price paid in the £45billion bailouts of RBS in 2009.

In addition to the taxpayer-funded banks, the rest of the Royal Mail, the Green Investment Bank and the Royal Mint could be sold off.

(Image: PA)

The privatisations are set to raise nearly three times as much as the £11.8billion (£20.5billion in today’s money) from the Thatcher government’s sale of BT, National Power and the electricity firms.

Other assets which could be sold by the Treasury include Channel 4, the Met Office, the remainder of the air traffic controller Nats and Ordnance Survey.

Britain saw many of its national assets privatised under the Thatcher Government including British Gas, British Steel and British Aerospace.

At the time the former Tory Prime Minister Harold Macmillan accused her of selling off “the family silver.”

The Treasury said: “As the Chancellor has said, if we want a more productive economy then we should get the government out of the business of owning great chunks of our banking system - and indeed other assets that should be in the private sector.”

(Image: MEDIA WALES)

Cat Hobbs of the anti-privatisation We Own It campaign said: “George Osborne is pushing ahead with the biggest privatisation ever.

“We all own the public assets he is so keen to sell off - yet we weren’t consulted about their future.

Just because something can be privatised doesn’t mean that it should.

“Many of the assets that George Osborne is selling off could be kept in public hands, either providing a steady stream of income for the public purse or safeguarding vital public services like the universal service in the Royal Mail - and often both.”

“The planned RBS sell off is a bad deal for the taxpayer. Many assets that could be sold off next are national treasures, like Ordnance Survey and the Met Office.

"Many make a profit for the public purse. It would be outrageous to hand them over for a quick bit of cash, when we can never get them back.”

Unite the union’s Rob MacGregor added: “It is recklessly irresponsible for George Osborne to push ahead with the fire sale of the people’s stake in RBS while the bank has yet to convince customers and staff that it will not return to the bad practices of the past that led to the bail out.

“After handing over so much of our money to the banks, the least we should expect is for our public stake to be used to clean up the industry and end the culture of misconduct that led to the crisis.

"Instead it appears that RBS have become so used to receiving massive fines they’ve taken to accounting for them in advance.

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“As long as mis-selling remains and the lessons of 2008 are ignored it is reckless for the chancellor to sell-off the public stake and give up the potential for scrutiny and transparency that should come with it.”

Mr Osborne has written to public sector workers asking for their ideas on what to cut as part of his £20billion departmental budgets.

In his letter, the Chancellor said: “You know better than most where we can take the next steps.

"You know first-hand where things are working well on the frontline of public services, but also where the waste is and where we can provide better services for less money.

“So today we are inviting you to share with us your ideas for how to get more for less. If you think there is a better way to do things, we want to know.”