UK Begin First World War Debt Payment

According to Sky news, the Government has announced it will pay off part of the UK's First World War debt the first of such payment for 67 years.
The Treasury will repay £218m of the £2bn still owed from the 1914 to 1918 war, as part of redemption of bonds stretching as far back as the 18th century.

The payment, to be made on 1 February next year, will be the first repayment of National War Bonds by a Chancellor since 1947.

The 4% consolidated loans were first issued by Chancellor Winston Churchill in 1927, partly to refinance National War Bonds from the Great War.

Britain has paid £1.26bn in interest on them since then, according to the Debt Management Office.

Chancellor George Osborne said he had decided to redeem some of them now because interest rates are lower than the 4% it is currently paying.