First the carpetbaggers who sense that when confronted with the choice between a building society and a bung, members will choose the latter. Both are institutions, if not in turmoil, then certainly in the process of far-reaching and traumatic change The impetus for that change is coming from two quarters. Like the church, many of its advocates have the air of religious zealots, proselytising on behalf of the movement and its ideals at every opportunity. And like the church, the mutual movement is being dragged kicking and screaming into the late 20th century. It was somehow appropriate that yesterday's love-in for those still wedded and glued to the concept of mutual ownership should have taken place in the sanctity of Church House under the shadow of Westminster Abbey. Like the established church, the movement paddled along quite happily for many years in peaceful obscurity, largely protected from the harsh realities of commercial life.

Coupled with pounds 65,163 of other benefits, his total pay, including pension contributions, rose to pounds 372,108.. BNFL said its dividend payout to the Treasury would be halved to pounds 46m. The reductions came from the planned shutdown of the Magnox fuel reprocessing plant at Sellafield and lower- than-expected deliveries of Magnox fuel after problems at one of the generator's reactors.Mr Taylor said the results, excluding the shutdown, had beaten targets, with savings of pounds 60m through BNFL's efficiency drive.Despite the drop, BNFL's annual report showed Mr Taylor was paid a pounds 61,425 annual bonus last year. Union officials fear the reductions could mean a drop in staff numbers of up to 25 per cent. Last year BNFL's workforce shrank by almost 500, mostly through a voluntary redundancy programme.The company yesterday revealed a 19 per cent fall in turnover for the year to the end of March to pounds 1.26bn and a corresponding 32 per cent drop in pre-tax profits to pounds 216m. Change is always difficult to deal with but there are many people across the organisation who realise we need to change."Unions were expecting to hear further details at a joint conference with management in December. The restructuring would save pounds 200m, around 25 per cent of BNFL's controllable costs, by 2000-2001.Mr Taylor explained: "We haven't set a target for job numbers yet We're going to talk this through with the workforce.

Magnox Electric will today reveal a substantial cut in its pounds 1.3bn of future decommissioning liabilities which are not covered by investments or guarantees from the taxpayer. Its total anticipated decommissioning liabilities were almost pounds 9bn last year.The comments came as BNFL confirmed that the cost-cutting programme, called Beyond 2000, would involve redundancies But the company said no figures had been suggested to staff. But BNFL repeated that it needed assurances from Magnox and the Government that the merger would not compromise the growth prospects of its existing business. Despite signing a memorandum of understanding earlier this year agreeing the merger, John Taylor, BNFL's chief executive, admitted the talks had taken longer than anticipated.The merger was planned after the older Magnox stations were separated from the rest of nuclear privatisation. BNFL also said yesterday it expected to conclude negotiations to merge its operations with Magnox Electric, the nuclear generator left in public ownership after last year's privatisation of British Energy, later this autumn. Staff at British Nuclear Fuels, the state-owned reprocessing and contracting group, were yesterday bracing themselves for news of hundreds of job losses after the company agreed to slash its costs by a quarter over the next four years. Nor were they convinced that the pound would continue to fall."The markets could call the Bundesbank's bluff on German interest rates, and if they did not raise rates that would give the pound a new lease of life," said Gerard Lyons, chief economist at DKB.Separately, the British Chambers of Commerce said yesterday its members wanted the UK to join the single European currency with a delay, but nevertheless as close as possible to the planned 2002 introduction of the Euro notes and coins..

In addition, figures this week showed inflation declining closer to the target of 2.5 per cent.The Bank of England stated last month it thought rates had risen enough for the time being.There has been nothing in the recent figures to alter the picture, bringing mortgage payers a welcome respite.Analysts said yesterday that this did not mean a future increase in UK interest rates could be ruled out. Alongside better-than-expected news about the German economy, it took the pound more than two pfennigs lower to DM2.85, the weakest for nearly three months. "The rise in the pound was predicated on a strong divergence between the German and UK economies," said Paul Meggyesi of Deutsche Morgan Grenfell.The most recent surveys on the UK economy have hinted at the start of a slowdown in booming consumer spending. The firm expectation that the Bank of England will not announce any change in interest rates after its Monetary Policy Committee finishes meeting today helped take the pound sharply lower yesterday. Bad debt provisions rose by 14 per cent to pounds 13.4m, though they were of the same 1.1 per cent proportion of account balances as last year.Mervyn Pedelty, an accountant and management consultant who will take over from Mr Thomas in October, yesterday pledged to maintain the ethical campaigns.Asked whether the ethical investment stand had won over other banks, Mr Thomas replied: "Unfortunately not." He cited a Co-op Bank conference against land mines, where only five smaller banks agreed to stop doing business with companies involved in the trade.People & Business, page 21. In the past decade the Co-op Bank has grown rapidly by targeting higher-income customers with products such as gold cards.Responding to criticism that the Bank had only grown by moving away from its original customer base, Mr Thomas argued the co-operative pioneers were middle class."It would be foolish to think they were men of the soil or hewers of rock," he said.Retail deposits at the bank grew 23 per cent in the six months to 26 July to pounds 2.8bn while average retail lending increased by 11 per cent to pounds 2.25bn. They don't need to be told that they cannot continue as they are with them losing market share."He implied the CWS had drifted from its founding principles. "The significant thing the bank has done is to go back to its roots Perhaps you can lose the thread a bit.