Who owns Britain's £2.9 trillion national debt?
From Mouthy Money: Building wealth with long term investing and saving strategies by Mouthy Money | UK finance podcast on building wealth
June 2, 2026 · 26 min
About this episode
The episode explores the ownership and implications of Britain's national debt and the bond market.
Politicians keep saying they don't want to be "in hock to the bond market" — but what does that actually mean, and who is the bond market anyway? In this episode of the Mouthy Money podcast, Edmund Greaves and Chris Tuite (MRM) pull back the curtain on UK gilts: what government bonds are, how they work, who really owns Britain's £2.9 trillion national debt, and why all of it matters for normal people saving for the long term. Ed and Chris break down how gilts function, why yields rise and fall, and how the bond market can quietly "discipline" an elected government's spending plans — the heart of the left-wing complaint about being beholden to faceless investors. But as they discover, the bond market isn't a shadowy cabal of top-hatted financiers. A huge chunk of it is pension funds, insurers and ordinary savers — quite possibly including you. They also dig into why this isn't abstract: gilt yields set the "risk-free rate" that prices everything from mortgages and annuities to savings rates and the value of the stock market. The 2022 mini-budget showed exactly how political choices ripple straight into your finances. 📊 KEY STATS COVERED: - UK national debt: ~£2.91 trillion (about…
People in this episode
Host: Edmund Greaves
Guest: Chris Tuite
Topics covered
- national debt
- bond market
- gilts
- government spending
- long term saving
- financial markets
Keywords
- UK gilts
- national debt
- bond market
- government bonds
- financial discipline
- gilt yields
- pension funds
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Bank of England, UK pension funds, insurers, bond market
Places: Britain, UK
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