02 · Debt and finance
You pay for time.
Every loan.
Every card.
Every gilt.
Interest is the charge for the passage of time. It is taken from households, from businesses and from the state itself.
A public declaration
The mechanism
The charge grows while you sleep.
£200,000 mortgage · 5% · 25 years
£150,700
Paid in interest before the household owns the house outright. Month after month, the charge comes first.
Time is the product. You are the payer.
The everyday
It is in every pocket.
£610
Credit card
The interest on £2,000 repaid at £100 a month.
40%
Overdraft
The annual cost of arranged borrowing, before fees.
£1,380
Personal loan
The interest on £8,000 borrowed over four years.
£9,400
Business loan
The interest on £50,000 borrowed over five years.
Small in pounds. Expensive per year.
The public cost
The state pays for time too.
£109bn
Debt interest in a single year — 3.6% of everything the country produces, committed before a budget is set.
Interest is paid before the hospitals and the schools.
The standard
No charge for time.
No interest on any balance.
For any lender.
At any scale.
Credit continues. Investment continues. Enterprise continues. The charge on the passage of time does not.
Risk still has a price.
Lenders carry real risk, and money lent today buys less tomorrow. That cost must be stated plainly — as a fee, a share of the outcome or a share of the loss. Not as an open-ended charge on someone else’s future.
Every alternative can still impose costs, generate profit and shift risk unfairly. Removing a stated interest rate does not make a product cheap or ethical on its own.
Verified official sources
Checked 2 November 2026
- [1]
Office for National Statistics, Public sector finances, UK: September 2026 (published 21 October 2026).
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/bulletins/publicsectorfinances/september2026 - [2]
House of Lords Library, UK fiscal outlook: September 2026 — debt interest of £109bn (3.6% of GDP) in 2025/26.
https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/uk-fiscal-outlook/ - [3]
HM Treasury, Debt Management Report 2026–27 — gilt holdings by investor type.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/debt-management-report-2026-27/debt-management-report-2026-27 - [4]
GOV.UK, Repaying your student loan — Plan 5 repayment terms and interest.
https://www.gov.uk/repaying-your-student-loan/what-you-pay - [5]
MoneyHelper (Money and Pensions Service), guidance on credit cards, overdrafts and loans.
https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money