Northern Rock provides services to Granite which enables it to meet its obligations to bondholders, including mortgage administration and cash management services. Granite is also a special purpose vehicle whose primary purpose is to provide funding to Northern Rock for mortgage lending. The Granite structure has little discretion to act outside of its contractual obligations, though control is ultimately vested in the bondholders and the trustee, rather than Northern Rock. Nationalising the shares in Granite Finance Holdings Limited would not therefore confer any significant advantage in relation to the control of the Granite vehicle or the rights or liabilities of Northern Rock in relation to the Granite structure.