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LONDON (UK): British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has outlined a series of measures to be taken by the Government in order to rejuvenate the ailing financial and banking system and ease the anxieties of families and businesses.

In a joint Downing Street press conference with Chancellor Alistair Darling, the PM said that financial markets had “ceased to function” and that it was time for “bold and far-reaching solutions”.

The financial stability programme, which includes £50 billion to be provided to banks through the raising of shares, will “put the British banking system on a sounder footing”, he said.

The PM said: “Our stability and restructuring programme is comprehensive, it is specific and it breaks new ground.

This is not a time for conventional thinking or outdated dogma but for the fresh and innovative intervention that gets to the heart of the problem.

“The programme is designed to restore confidence and trust in the financial system and, more than that, to put the British banking system on a sounder footing so as to build strength so that it can support jobs and prosperity right across the economy.” Mr Brown highlighted three main steps to the programme:

1. The Bank of England will make £200 billion available through its Special Liquidity Scheme to improve money flows.

2. The Government will help banks raise up to £50 billion through the raising of shares in order to improve the long-term health of the system.

3. The Government will provide guarantees of up to £250 billion, at commercial rates, to encourage inter-bank lending.

The Prime Minister said that there were a number of caveats to be built into the programme, including conditions on dividend payments and bankers’ remuneration, and that on commercial terms the Government expected “to be rewarded”.

Speaking later to MPs during Prime Minister’s Questions, the PM confirmed that the Bank of England, the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank had all agreed an immediate half-percent cut in interest rates, a step that would “assure people that all action is being taken” to tackle the economic crisis.