With Austria set to launch a new 100-year bond, Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) head of fixed income Jonathan Platt questioned why the UK has not introduced something similar, stating that it has “lost the sense of ‘seizing the moment’ to make transformational change”.
Platt commented: “No UK government or agency, in our long history of government debt finance, has been given the chance to raise long-term debt at such low rates. These opportunities do not come around often and this one is very stark.
“Put bluntly, if the UK government cannot earn a better return than 1.5 per cent on its spending over the longer term it is not doing its job.”
The RLAM head of fixed income emphasised that a product, such as the one being introduced in Austria, could support a broad range of developments, including in the infrastructure, health and education sectors, while also addressing the issues surrounding unfunded public sector pensions.
The Debt Management Office is an executive agency of Her Majesty’s Treasury and falling within its remit is the obligation to “minimise financing cost” for the UK taxpayer over the long term and taking the risk into consideration, Platt argued.
“The present timidity on raising long-term finance shows just how much we have lost the sense of ‘seizing the moment’ to make transformational change,” he concluded.
Latest News
NEW BUILD IN FOCUS - NEW EPISODE OF THE MORTGAGE INSIDER PODCAST, OUT NOW
Figures from the National House-Building Council saw Q1 2025 register a 36% increase in new homes built across the UK compared with the same period last year, representing a striking development for the first-time buyer market. But with the higher cost of building, ongoing planning challenges and new and changing regulations, how sustainable is this growth? And what does it mean for brokers?
The role of the bridging market and technology usage in the industry
Content editor, Dan McGrath, sat down with chief operating officer at Black & White Bridging, Damien Druce, and head of development finance at Empire Global Finance, Pete Williams, to explore the role of the bridging sector, the role of AI across the industry and how the property market has fared in the Labour Government’s first year in office.
Does the North-South divide still exist in the UK housing market?
What do the most expensive parts of the country reveal about shifting demand? And why is the Manchester housing market now outperforming many southern counterparts?
In this episode of the Barclays Mortgage Insider Podcast, host Phil Spencer is joined by Lucian Cook, Head of Research at Savills, and Ross Jones, founder of Home Financial and Evolve Commercial Finance, to explore how regional trends are redefining the UK housing, mortgage and buy-to-let markets.
In this episode of the Barclays Mortgage Insider Podcast, host Phil Spencer is joined by Lucian Cook, Head of Research at Savills, and Ross Jones, founder of Home Financial and Evolve Commercial Finance, to explore how regional trends are redefining the UK housing, mortgage and buy-to-let markets.
The new episode of The Mortgage Insider podcast, out now
Regional housing markets now matter more than ever. While London and the Southeast still tend to dominate the headlines from a house price and affordability perspective, much of the growth in rental yields and buyer demand is coming from other parts of the UK.
In this episode of the Barclays Mortgage Insider Podcast, host Phil Spencer is joined by Lucian Cook, Head of Research at Savills, and Ross Jones, founder of Home Financial and Evolve Commercial Finance.
In this episode of the Barclays Mortgage Insider Podcast, host Phil Spencer is joined by Lucian Cook, Head of Research at Savills, and Ross Jones, founder of Home Financial and Evolve Commercial Finance.
© 2019 Perspective Publishing Privacy & Cookies
Recent Stories