2,000 Northern Rock jobs threatened

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Bank chairman Ron Sandler said Northern Rock's management team was "fairly close" to finalising the legally-required redundancy form but would not confirm reports that it will be delivered to ministers next week.

The plan will start a 90-day consultation with unions over job cuts, with Mr Sandler suggesting that the total number of redundancies would be around 2,000.

These jobs would go "over some period of time", he said.

The beleaguered bank was nationalised in February after Chancellor Alistair Darling failed to attract a buyer in the private sector.

Mr Sandler, the City trouble-shooter charged with running the publicly-owned bank, said at the time that the business would have to be slimmed down.

The scale of proposed job losses will be disclosed to ministers shortly in an HR1 form.

The document is legally required by the Government when a firm proposes redundancies of more than 20 employees.

Mr Sandler said: "We are about to start a consultation with the unions - it has not yet begun. The process will start with a submission to the Government. It will be submitted when we are ready. It is fairly close."

Reports suggested that staff at the bank would be made redundant within three months. Previous estimates put the time-scale of job losses at three years.