THOUSANDS of North-East householders are set for a pre Christmas windfall of almost £2,000 each following a bank blunder.

A mistake in the wording of some Northern Rock loan statements will see about 152,000 customers share a £270m payout.

Taxpayers will be forced to pick up the bill for mistakes made by the bank that has already cost the public billions.

Some customers who took out personal loans below £25,000 with the Newcastle-based lender will get an average of £1,775 after strict banking rules were broken.

Tonight, a political row is brewing as opposition MPs asked why the error, which came to light in October, hadn't been revealed in Chancellor George Osborne's mini Budget statement last Wednesday.

Chris Leslie, Shadow Treasury Minister, said: "It's time George Osborne started being honest with people.

"No amount of trickiness with the figures can disguise the fact that his failure to deliver jobs and growth means he is borrowing billions more than he planned."

The bank said that letters will go out in the next few days so customers affected need not do anything.

The 45,000 people who have repaid their loans will get a cash refund and the 107,000 who still owe money will see their account balance altered to take the refunds into account.

The run by customers of Northern Rock in September 2007 was one of the defining moments in the financial crisis which led to global recession.

The latest problem for the Rock happened after it was nationalised in February 2008 and before it was split into so-called "good" and "bad" banks in 2009. The "good" part of the lender was sold to Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Money a year ago.

Loan statements sent to customers failed to include the original amount which had been borrowed.

The mistake came to light when staff at UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), which looks after rescued banks for the government, started to move customers' accounts from the old Northern Rock system onto a new one.