A pressure group representing nearly 1,000 former Bradford & Bingley investors has announced plans to raise a £100,000 fighting fund.

The Bradford & Bingley Shareholders Action Group (BBAG) wants to fund a legal battle to overturn the Government-appointed valuer’s decision that B&B shares were worth nothing at the time of nationalisation.

Earlier this month, Pricewaterhouse-Coopers valuer Peter Clokey made his decision after deciding that B&B, which had seen £173 million flood out of the firm in the two days before nationalisation, would have fallen into administration, leaving nothing for shareholders.

Richard Jennings has now written to shareholders on behalf of the action group saying: “It is with a sense of both incredulity and dismay, counterbalanced with an unwavering determination to ensure that justice ultimately prevails, that we write this letter.

“We are presently preparing an appeal against his decision and believe that there are some very important points that require re-addressing.

“We are aiming for a fighting fund of £100,000 but this sum is dwarfed by what we believe the true value of the company’s shares before nationalisation. We ask for a minimum of £38 to cover basic costs and make a small contribution to the fund, but to build the fighting fund to the size required, we ask you to add to this what you can, taking account of the size of your holding.”

Meanwhile, David Blundell, chairman of BBAG, has written to Mr Clokey requesting copies documents referred to in his assessment notice.

In his letter, Mr Blundell said his group was “particularly concerned” that the decision had been made based on material and information to which his group does not have access.

“This makes our ability to assess your validation impossible. Until we have access to all the data and evidence available to you, we are not in a position to challenge your assessment and yet we appear to be subject to an arbitrary deadline of seven weeks to provide evidence to support a challenge,” added Mr Blundell.