Northern Rock yesterday vowed to press ahead with a £60 million shareholder payout, despite having been forced to obtain an emergency loan from the Bank of England to stay in business.

The move infuriated organisations representing British taxpayers. A spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Alliance said that Northern Rock shareholders should be made to “take a hair-cut” while the Government was underwriting the bank’s operations.

Following the Chancellor’s decision on Monday to guarantee the safety of savings with Northern Rock, taxpayers will face a £28 billion bill if the bank goes bust. They also face the prospect of having to offer similar guarantees to other banks that get into trouble.

A spokeswoman for the Newcastle-based bank said yesterday that the dividend guidance given by Northern Rock two months ago remained unchanged. The company promised to spend almost £60 million on a 14.2p per share dividend, up more than 30 per cent on the previous year to try to appease investors who were disappointed by a profits warning in June. The dividend payment will be made in October.

The spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Alliance said: “Having enjoyed all those years of fantastic returns, bank shareholders must be made to take their haircuts. This is not a one-way bet.

“Before taxpayers are required to shell out a bean, the Northern Rock shareholders must lose everything. They’ve had the upside, and now they must pay the price.”

But stockbrokers said that they could not recall a recent example of a company pulling a declared dividend. One broker said that even Partygaming, which saw its shares plunge 57 per cent in one day in September last year, continued to pay its dividend.

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