We have audited the financial statements which comprise the profit and loss account, the balance sheet, the cash flow statement and the related notes.

The Directors' responsibilities for preparing the Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable United Kingdom law and accounting standards are set out in the statement of Directors' responsibilities.

Our responsibility is to audit the financial statements in accordance with relevant legal and regulatory requirements and United Kingdom Auditing Standards issued by the Auditing Practices Board.

This report, including the opinion, has been prepared for and only for THFC’s members as a body in accordance with the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts 1965 to 2002. We do not, in giving this opinion, accept or assume responsibility for any other purpose or to any other person to whom this report is shown or into whose hands it may come save where expressly agreed by our prior consent in writing.

We report to you our opinion as to whether the financial statements give a true and fair view and are properly prepared in accordance with the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts 1965 to 2002. We also report to you if, in our opinion, the Directors' Report is not consistent with the financial statements, if THFC has not kept proper accounting records, if we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit, or if information specified by law regarding Directors' remuneration and transactions is not disclosed.

We read the other information contained in the Annual Report and consider the implications for our report if we become aware of any apparent misstatements or material nconsistencies with the financial statements. The other information comprises only the Directors' Report, the Chairman's Report and the Group Report.

We also, at the request of the Directors (because the company applies the Financial Services Authority Listing Rules as if it were a listed company), review whether the statement on pages 15 and 16 reflects the Group's compliance with the seven provisions of the Combined Code specified by the Financial Services Authority for review by auditors of listed companies, and we report if it does not. We are not required to consider whether the Board's statements on internal control cover all risks and controls, or to form an opinion on the effectiveness of the Group's corporate governance procedures or its risk and control procedures.

We conducted our audit in accordance with auditing standards issued by the Auditing Practices Board.

An audit includes examination, on a test basis, of evidence relevant to the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. It also includes an assessment of the significant estimates and judgements made by the Directors in the preparation of the financial statements, and of whether the accounting policies are appropriate to the company's circumstances, consistently applied and adequately disclosed.

We planned and performed our audit so as to obtain all the information and explanations which we considered necessary in order to provide us with sufficient evidence to give reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement, whether caused by fraud or other irregularity or error. In forming our opinion we also evaluated the overall adequacy of the presentation of information in the financial statements.

In our opinion the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of THFC and the Group at 31 March 2004 and of the profit and cash flows of the Group for the year then ended and have been properly prepared in accordance with the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts 1965 to 2002.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Chartered Accountants and Registered Auditors
London
21 June 2004