UK Economic Dashboard

The UK's debt interest bill has risen sharply in recent years. Independent estimates put annual debt interest spending at around £100–£120 billion in the most recent fiscal year, reflecting higher borrowing costs and a large stock of debt. This figure is sensitive to short-term changes in interest rates and inflation.

There isn't a single foreign country that "owns most" UK debt. UK gilts are held by a mix of domestic institutions (pension funds, insurance companies), the Bank of England's Asset Purchase Facility, and overseas investors. Overseas investors account for a significant minority of holdings, while pension funds and insurance companies are among the largest domestic holders.

The UK repaid major wartime loans over many decades. For example, the large Anglo-American loan from 1946 was fully repaid in 2006. Most specific wartime loans have been settled, though wartime borrowing shaped the public finances for many years after 1945.

Interest on government debt is paid to the holders of that debt — i.e., whoever owns the gilts or Treasury instruments at the payment date. That includes pension funds, insurance companies, banks, overseas investors, and (indirectly) the Bank of England when it holds gilts via its Asset Purchase Facility (which passes some cash flows back to HM Treasury).

See the first answer — the UK's annual interest bill is currently in the order of about £100–£120 billion, but monthly figures can be large and volatile (for example, single-month interest outlays in mid-2025 reached double-digit billions of pounds). Exact totals depend on the fiscal year and any one-off indexation or accounting effects.