The British government has said it will repay all its remaining First World War debt, the legacy of unprecedented efforts to meet the costs of the conflict a century ago.
Chancellor George Osborne’s annoucement came on December 3rd 2014, ahead of his yearly Autumn Statement to Parliament on tax and spending plans.
As the minister in charge of the UK’s finances, Mr Osborne said it was a ‘good deal for this generation of taxpayers’ and ‘also another fitting way to remember that extraordinary sacrifice of the past.’
The debt will be refinanced with new bonds taking advantage of today’s very low interest rates.
“We’ll make sure the First World War continues to be properly commemorated, ” the Chancellor assured MPs during his statement to the House of Commons.
Mr Osborne’s announcement goes further than his earlier undertaking in October 2014 to pay back £218 million of Great War debt.
The Treasury will repay the outstanding £1.9 billion from war loan bonds in March 2015. They were issued in 1932, during Neville Chamberlain’s time as Chancellor, to reduce the costs of servicing the national debt.
Faced with the huge demands of fighting the First World,War, the UK government ran fund-raising campaigns throughout 1914-18, urging people to make a patriotic investment.
Source: UK Government
Images: Centenary News
Posted by: Peter Alhadeff, Centenary News