A spokesman from the troubled Northern Rock bank announced today that the company had borrowed a total of around £25 billion from the Bank of England since the run on the bank caused by the credit crunch, reports Reuters.

However officials from the Bank of England have said this figure is too low. Their weekly balance sheet which records a best estimate of loans given to Northern Rock since September says that Northern Rock could have borrowed up to £30 billion.

According to Reuters, Northern Rock downplayed this saying the extra £5 billion included other components.

The Bank of England however said that these components included in the banks other assets category on its balance sheet had grown in the last few weeks and would distort the exact figure of the amount borrowed by Northern Rock.

The run on Northern Rock was the first on a British bank in 140 years. Northern Rock is currently looking for a buyer, a number of bids have been received including one from a consortium led by Richard Branson's Virgin Group.

Virgin has been declared as the preferred bidder.

Richard Branson