Government stake in Lloyds Banking Group now less than 8%

Reduction takes place after Philip Hammond abandons any attempt at discounted offer of shares to the public

The chancellor expects to recoup the total amount injected into the bank, which rescued HBOS during the height of the crisis. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

The government’s stake in Lloyds Banking Group is now less than 8% – down from 43% at the time of its £20bn taxpayer bailout in 2008.

The reduction took place after Philip Hammond abandoned any attempt at a discounted offer of shares to the public and pressed on with plans to sell shares on the stock market. The current sales are taking place at a price lower than the 73.6p average price paid for the stake during the time of the crisis.

Even so, the chancellor expects to recoup the total amount injected into the bank, which rescued HBOS during the height of the crisis.

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“Selling our shares in Lloyds Banking Group and making sure that we get back all the cash taxpayers injected into it during the financial crisis is one of my top priorities as chancellor,” said Hammond, as he prepared to present his plans for the post-Brexit vote economy in Wednesday’s autumn statement.

Lloyds shares are trading at just below 60p. While the stake in Lloyds is falling, the government is holding on to its 73% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland. Hammond said last month that the time had not come to sell off any more of the shares in the Edinburgh-based bank, in which only a 5% stake was sold in August 2015 at a £1bn loss.