Osborne unleashes £100bn plan to 'fire' up UK economy

The UK Chancellor George Osborne and the Bank of England's governor Mervyn King have unveiled a £100bn package to prop up the UK's flagging economy and protect it from the encroaching eurozone crisis.

The "funding for lending" scheme was announced at the City's Mansion House event last night as the pair said they needed to "deploy new firepower" to avoid a severe credit crunch amid the eurozone turmoil. The initiatives include activating an emergency scheme that offers six-month liquidity to banks in tranches of at least £5bn a month, further rounds of quantitative easing and cheaper loans to businesses and households, according to the FT. Osborne said: "It is very hard to argue that monetary policy - in all its forms - has run out of road. The government - with the help of the Ban...