{"id":28111,"date":"2025-09-18T02:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T02:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/28111\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T02:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T02:10:12","slug":"premium-bonds-might-beat-the-bond-market-bullies-budget-deficit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/28111\/","title":{"rendered":"Premium bonds might beat the bond market bullies | Budget deficit"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read the article by Larry Elliott with interest and thought I could suggest one small act of rebellion that is easily in the chancellor\u2019s hands and could raise substantial sums of money (Let France be a warning, Rachel Reeves: stand up to the bond market vigilantes, or they\u2019ll come for Britain next, 11 September<\/a>).<\/p>\n

At the moment, interest on the vast majority of government borrowing is paid to banks, pension funds and other lenders, a significant proportion of which are based overseas. Interest paid on\u00a0those borrowings varies, but can\u00a0exceed 5%.<\/p>\n

While we are largely in the hands of these \u201cbond market bullies\u201d, we have our own bond market that is available to tap into. At the moment about \u00a3130bn is held in premium bonds<\/a>, which pay out an equivalent\u00a0interest rate of 3.6%, almost entirely to UK\u00a0citizens.<\/p>\n

Almost half of that \u00a3130bn is in the hands of individuals holding the maximum of \u00a350,000. If that maximum holding limit were to be increased, the government would receive a considerable influx of funds at the cost of a relatively low\u00a0interest rate.<\/p>\n

UK banks and building societies might complain about unfair competition, but surely the need of the exchequer for additional funds (without raising taxes) comes first.
Phil Spence
Tenby, Pembrokeshire<\/p>\n

Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I read the article by Larry Elliott with interest and thought I could suggest one small act of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[72,61,60,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-28111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-markets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}