Amidst the many figures and forecasts in the March budget there was one that stood out which got too little attention. The Official figures said the Bank of England’s bond buying which had sent the Treasury £124 bn of profits in the early years will end in overall loss of £104 bn when they have finished their fire sale and run off the bonds. That is a hidden way of saying they plan to lose £228 bn on bonds. Taxpayers have so far had to stump up £49 bn of this loss by March 2024, with more big bills this year.

This whopping increase in public spending goes undiscussed in Parliament now I have stood down. The last Chancellor wrote a letter saying this is a real cost to the public sector which reduces scope for other spending and or leads to higher taxes. The Bank of England for its part denies selling all these bonds at low prices is important to its monetary policy. It wants us to believe these sales do not depress bond prices and therefore push up interest rates. The time when they first announced a major programme of ¥80 bn of sales was the start of the big autumn 2022 bond sell off, when the new coincided with a rate hike and triggered the LDI problems.

No other Central Bank thinks it clever to incur big losses by selling bonds they paid too much for at depressed prices they help create by the sales. No other. central Bank sends a huge bill to taxpayers. Why do we put up with this? Why do we pay the Governor £550,000 a year for being the world’s worst large scale bond trader, presenting us, the taxpayers, with a forecast £228 bn bill?