Nationalised bank Northern Rock could receive another loan from the government in order to boost lending.

Some newspapers are reporting that the loan could be worth as much as 10 billion GBP, although a Treasury spokesperson described this as “utterly speculative”.

The loan would be another attempt to stimulate the bank into lending again.

Last week, Northern Rock was given longer to pay off its existing government loan, allowing it to offer remortgage deals to existing customers rather than encouraging them to borrow elsewhere.