Osborne fires starting gun on big banks sell-off: Chancellor vows to get taxpayers' money back from RBS and Lloyds George Osborne to use major speech to set out plan for privatisation Taxpayer spent £66billion bailing out banks in 2008 Chancellor confirms Stephen Hester was ousted as RBS boss to clear the way for a major sell-off The taxpayer will get its money back from bailing out stricken banks, George Osborne vowed today as he signalled the start the process of selling off Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland. The Chancellor revealed he will use a major speech tomorrow to set out his plan to return the lenders to the private sector and recoup the £66billion spent at the height of the financial crash buying shares in the two banks. And he made clear that RBS boss Stephen Hester was ousted last week because the Treasury wants to stop running two of the country's biggest banks. Sell-off: Chancellor George Osborne vowed to get the taxpayer's £66billion back from bailing out RBS and LLoyds The British taxpayer spent £45billion bailing out the Royal Bank of Scotland and holds 81 per cent of the company. The shares currently stand at around £3.20, well below the £5 paid by the Labour government. Mr Hester has suggested it could another 10 years before the shares return to a level where the government can recoup all of its money. The government also has a 39 per cent stake in Lloyds Banking Group after spending £20billion. The shares stand at around 62p each, below the 73.6p paid. Mr Osborne is expected to use tomorrow night's Mansion House speech to set out his timetable for finally selling the shares. And he made clear that removing Mr Hester from his job as RBS chief executive was central to the plan. He stressed that the exact time scale will depend on the market and when the share price picks up. But hinting at a new sense of urgency, he said: "We want to return these banks to private ownership. It's not a good thing for Britain to be owning these large banks. Second, we want to make sure the taxpayer gets value for money. We put a lot of our money into these banks; we want to get the money back. And the third point is, crucially, we want these banks to be strong supporters of the British economy. RBS is one of the biggest lenders in Britain; Lloyds has, I think, more current accounts than any other bank and lends more mortgages than any other bank. So these are incredibly important institutions, and I want them doing anything they can to support the British economy, as we move from these rescue phase to the recovery phase. A report by the Parliamentary Banking Commission is expected to recommend tomorrow that RBS should be broken up into a good and bad bank. Toxic loans which might never be repaid would be placed in the "bad" arm while the profitable business could be sold off under leaks of the proposals expected to be set out by a powerful commission of MPs and peers. However, Mr Osborne has made clear he is not in favour of the idea, preferring instead to return the whole of RBS to the private sector. Out: Stephen Hester quit as RBS chief executive last week after being told by the board that the bank wanted someone new to lead the sell-off of government shares The Chancellor added that the government could not "think about" selling RBS after Mr Hester was removed as chief executive. He insisted that Mr Hester "decided to go" after "discussion with the board of RBS." Let's be clear: it was a decision of Stephen Hester and the board, but of course, as the person who represents the taxpayer interest - we've got a huge stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland because the previous government put a huge amount of taxpayer's money into the Royal Bank of Scotland - of course my consent and approval was sought. He though it was time to go with the consent of the board, and the reason is this: he has done a very good job, he has done a very good rescue job. But we're now moving to the recovery phase of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and we want to make clear that we have a chief executive who's going to be in place throughout that period as we make sure it focuses on the strategy of being a UK bank, lending to British businesses and British families. And we can begin to think about returning the Royal Bank of Scotland to private ownership - with the very important proviso that we get our money back; that taxpayer value is secured.