Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester this evening promised the bank would not be turning its back on his former colleagues in the commercial property world.

Hester, who ran property giant British Land before leaving for the stricken RBS last year, said he would be ensuring commercial property customers were only foreclosed as a very last resort.

Speaking at the British Property Federation's annual conference, he said: "We intend to play a long game in helping customers work through their debt issues."

RBS, like all the main banks, has a massive exposure to commercial property investments made before the property market crash. Analysts have put the total figure of all banks' exposure at £225 billion.

A wave of repossessions is likely this year as landlords find they can no longer keep up their repayments.

Hester also repeated his hope that the Government, which currently owns 70% of RBS, would have a "zero stake" in the bank in five years' time.

He said he wanted to be paying staff "competitively" in the future. The issue of pay for bankers at bailed-out banks has long been a controversial one. The Government said it will not tolerate big bonuses at failed banks but executives say they will not be able to retain or hire good staff if they are not allowed to compensate them competitively.

RBS investors have publicly voiced their concern that Hester is not being paid enough.