THE right decision at the wrong time. That's the verdict of Kent business experts on the Government’s controversial decision to nationalise the ailing Northern Rock mortgage bank.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling announced on Sunday that the bank would go into "temporary public ownership" after rejecting interest from the private sector.

The decision, he said, would give greater protection to taxpayers who have pumped more than £50bn into Northern Rock. However, experts claim the taxpayer could now be exposed to liabilities of more than £100bn, around £3,500 for every taxpayer.

Mike Sargeant, managing director of Pharon Independent Financial Advisers, in Harbledown, near Canterbury, said the mistakes were made when the problem first arose. "The markets should have been allowed to sort it out," he said.

But he did not think the Government had any alternative after pouring so much taxpayers’ money into the Rock. "The decison is probably the right one although we should not have found ourselves here in the first place."

Mr Sargeant said it was bad news for investors in Northern Rock. Many had seen their life savings disappear. While there were fewer Rock investors in Kent than in the North East, a number of local people had made loans to the bank through Permanent Interest Bearing Securities (PIBS). "They’re going to lose a lot of money as well," he said.

Frazer Thompson, chairman of the Institute of Directors in Kent, said: "It’s probably the right decsion made rather too late.

"The poor old Chancellor is on a hiding to nothing. Having gone through the process, he’s taken far too long to come to the decison that it needs to go into public ownership."

It should go back into private ownership as soon as possible, although experts say it could take at least three years.

"We cannot win out of this. The Chancellor did the right thing in not letting the bank go to the wall and sparking a huge banking crisis. But the decision-making has been slow and this crisis has gone on politically for far too long.

"It’s another big blow to the economic capability fo the Government. We’ve seen a series of slips and blunders over the last year that now make business leaders start to question the Government’s competence on economic matters."