However lets look at the rising national debt in the UK and see how it rose over the past 15 years.
Number are in UK £Pounds: Trillion.
Courtesy of Statista
Government debt in the United Kingdom reached over 2.81 Trillion British pounds in 2024/25, compared with 2.69 trillion pounds in the previous financial year. Although debt has been increasing throughout this period, there is a noticeable jump between 2019/20, and 2020/21, when debt increased from 1.82 trillion pounds, to 2.15 trillion. The UK’s government debt was the equivalent of 95.8 percent of GDP in 2024/25, and is expected to increase slightly in coming years, and not start falling until the end of this decade
Now, the big issue is looking at the total debt of £2810 Billion = £2.81 Trillion. Thus when carrying this level of debt, there is huge public sector expenditure on public sector debt interest in the United Kingdom from 2010/11 to 2024/25, see below:-
Courtesy of Statista
As you can see above, in 2024/25, total interest payments on HM Government debt was £124.7 Billion, money that is paid to the creditors of the UK (the lenders), which means, money that can NOT be used on the UK, e.g. not able to use £124.7 Billion on new hospitals or new schools or better roads. Servicing the debt is now a large part of HM Government expenditure.
“Renewable energy overtook coal as the world’s leading source of electricity in the first half of this year – a historic first, according to new data from the global energy think tank Ember.
Electricity demand is growing around the world but the growth in solar and wind was so strong it met 100% of the extra electricity demand, even helping drive a slight decline in coal and gas use”
The 3 companies of Nvidia, Microsoft & Apple account for overONE THIRD of the index that is made up of 106 companies. 3 companies account for 34.5% of the value of the entire fund.
The iShares Fallen Angels High Yield Corp Bond UCITS ETF is a collective investment fund that seeks to track the performance of an index composed of high yield corporate bonds from issuers in developed markets, which have been downgraded to sub-investment grade at some point in their trading history.
The iShares Global Aerospace & Defence UCITS ETF is a fund that aims to achieve a total return, through a combination of capital and income returns, which reflects the return of the S&P Developed BMI Select Aerospace & Defence 35/20 Capped Index, the Fund’s benchmark index (“Index”).
It has exposure to developed market equity securities of companies within the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) industry of Aerospace and Defence, its investments includes manufacturers of civil or military aerospace and defence equipment, parts or products, defence electronics and space equipment. The Benchmark Index caps the weights of the largest companies on a monthly basis to help ensure index diversification.
The total number of shares issued by Lloyds Banking Group plc with rights to vote which are exercisable in all circumstances at general meetings is 59,602,243,740
Thus:-
59,602,243,740 x £0.0122 = £727,147,373.628
That is £727 million paid to shareholders in Lloyds Banking Group PLC
In the past few days, Oracle has been making the headlines with its incredible database software, its data centres and its move into AI. The world runs on Oracle.
“Shares in Oracle soared more than 40% after the database software company gave investors a surprisingly rosy outlook for its cloud infrastructure business and artificial intelligence (AI) deals.” Lets look at the numbers:-
The market value is now $922 Billion
The
See below, a snapshot of some of the bonds that Oracle has outstanding. Currently money owed to the bondholders of Oracle
We can see above the different interest levels on each “debt bundle”, approximately an average of about 2.8%.
We can see Oracle owes about £77 billion. Total debt of £77bn at an average interest rate of 2.8%, meaning the interest costs for Oracle on £77bn is £2.156 billion.
So, lets keep things in context. Interest payments to bond holders of £2.156 billion…and in 2024 it sees just Cloud revenues of over $18bn which is only one of its revenue streams. It is firing on all cylinders.
So the debt interest payments are trivial, based on its huge reveunes.
“Oracle now sees $18 billion in cloud infrastructure revenue in fiscal 2026, with the company calling for the annual sum to reach $32 billion, $73 billion, $114 billion and $144 billion over the subsequent four years.”
Today, Wednesday 10th Sept 2025, the premier UK Telecommunications titan, BT PLC pays out its September 2025 dividend to its long standing shareholders. https://www.bt.com
BT Group plc confirms that on 29 August 2025 its capital consisted of 9,968,127,681 ordinary shares with voting rights. On that date, BT Group plc held 656,075 ordinary shares as treasury shares and therefore, the total number of voting rights in BT Group plc on that date was 9,967,471,606.
Thus:-
£0.0576 x 9,967,471,606 = £574,126,364.5056
£574 Million paid to the long term shareholders in British Telecommunications PLC.
At close of business on 31 July 2025, its investments were as follows:-
Company
% of total net assets
Greencoat UK Wind
7.0%
SSE
6.3%
Clearway Energy A Class
6.2%
RWE
6.1%
Northland Power
5.4%
Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust
4.6%
Grenergy Renovables
4.5%
NextEnergy Solar Fund
4.3%
Bonheur
4.0%
Foresight Solar Fund
3.7%
Drax Group
3.7%
National Grid
3.7%
Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital REIT
3.6%
SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust
3.2%
iShares UK Gilts 0-5y ETF
2.5%
Cadeler
2.5%
iShares GBP Ultrashort Bond UC
2.5%
The Renewables Infrastructure Group
2.4%
GCP Infrastructure Investments
2.1%
Greencoat Renewable
1.8%
Fastned
1.6%
Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income
1.4%
Polaris Renewable Energy
1.2%
AES
1.2%
Vanguard UK Gilt UCITS ETF
1.2%
Orsted
1.1%
Gore Street Energy Storage Fund
1.1%
Serena Energia
1.0%
VH Global Sustainable Energy Opportunities
0.8%
Corporacion Acciona Energias Renovables
0.7%
MPC Energy Solutions
0.7%
Scatec Solar
0.6%
7C Solarparken
0.5%
Foresight Environmental Infrastructure
0.5%
Boralex
0.5%
US Solar Fund
0.3%
Westbridge Renewable Energy
0.2%
Cash/Net Current Assets
5.2%
At close of business on 31 July 2025, the total net assets of Premier Miton Global Renewables Trust PLC amounted to £40.9 million. The sector breakdown and geographical allocation were as follows:
The CT Private Equity Trust PLC, is a London listed investment company whose objective is to achieve long-term capital growth through investment in private equity assets, whilst providing shareholders with a predictable and above average level of dividend funded from a combination of the Company’s revenue and realised capital profits.
S&P 500 Covered Call UCITS ETF is an ETF that seeks to generate income by replicating a buy-write index via premiums received from selling covered calls.
A covered call strategy is an option-based income strategy that involves selling call options against owned stocks to generate income while mitigating downside risk. This strategy can also provide a variety of diversification benefits.
The Nasdaq 100 Covered Call UCITS ETF is an ETF that seeks to generate income by replicating a buy-write index via premiums received from selling covered calls.
A covered call strategy is an option-based income strategy that involves selling call options against owned stocks to generate income while mitigating downside risk. This strategy can also provide a variety of diversification benefits.
The covered call strategy has recently maintained a relatively higher yield. With a 12-month yield of 12.2%, QYLD LN outperforms global high-yield bonds (9.5%) and emerging market bonds (8%), as well as traditional asset classes such as 10-Year U.S. Treasuries (4.6%) and U.S. Equities (1.6%).
The M&G Global Themes Fund aims to provide a combination of capital growth and income to deliver a return that is higher, net of the ongoing charge figure, than that of the MSCI ACWI Index over any five-year period. It does this by investing at least 80% of the fund in the shares of companies the fund manager believes are positioned to benefit from structural trends in the global economy. These can be in any sector, of any market capitalisation and domiciled in any country, including emerging markets.
The Vanguard Global Short-Term Corporate Bond Index Fund is a bond index fund where the index includes global corporate bonds with maturities of between 1 and 5 years. The Index is a multi-currency index that includes bonds from developed and emerging markets issuers within the industrial, utility and financial sectors.
The L&G Frontier Markets Equity Fund aims to track the performance of the Frontier Markets equity market as represented by the MSCI Frontier Markets 100 10/40 Index
“BP makes a broader socioeconomic contribution to countries in which we operate, in addition to the payments that are required to be reported under the Regulations. We make payments to governments in connection with parts of our business other than extractive activities – for example in relation to the transportation, trading, manufacture and marketing of oil and gas. As well as government payments, bp contributes to the economies of the countries in which we operate by providing jobs for employees and contractors, purchasing materials from local suppliers and undertaking social investment activities“
Total payments $24,842.30 Million = $24.842 Billion
The voting rights attaching to the Unilever Group Shares are not exercisable. Accordingly, as at 30 May 2025, there were 2,452,731,981 shares with voting rights
John Clifton “Jack” Bogle (May 8, 1929 – January 16, 2019) was an American investor, business magnate and philanthropist. He was the founder and chief executive of The Vanguard Group and is credited with popularizing the index fund. An avid investor and money manager himself, he preached investment over speculation, long-term patience over short-term action and reducing broker fees as much as possible. An ideal investment vehicle for Bogle was a low-cost index fund representing the entire US market, held over a lifetime with dividends reinvested.
Number of stocks as at the date 31 Mar 2025 :- of the fund
7,114 Stocks
Top Ten Holdings are:-
Apple Inc 3.70% of the fund Microsoft Corp 3.15% of the fund NVIDIA Corp 2.87% of the fund Amazon.com Inc 2.02% of the fund Meta Platforms Inc 1.43% of the fund Alphabet Inc 1.03% of the fund Broadcom Inc 0.87% of the fund Alphabet Inc 0.85% of the fund Tesla Inc 0.81% of the fund JPMorgan Chase & Co 0.77% of the fund
The L&G Climate Action Global Equity Fund whose objective of the Fund is to provide long-term capital growth.
The Fund is actively managed and seeks to achieve its objective by investing at least 80% of its assets in a broad range of equity securities from around the world, including Developing/Emerging Markets
The Fund will invest in companies that are not currently aligned to climate transition or companies taking steps towards climate transition alignment. Companies that are not aligned to climate transition are those that are not on track to meet net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 (“Net Zero CO2”). The Fund will also invest in companies that are already taking steps to meet Net Zero CO2, or contributing to the transition to Net Zero CO2.
“Choosing individual stocks without any idea of what you’re looking for is like running through a dynamite factory with a burning match. You may live, but you’re still an idiot.”
The Schroder Income Growth Fund plc is a London listed invesrment trust.
The Schroder Income Growth Fund aims to achieve income growth in excess of inflation and capital growth as a result of that rising income. SCF has grown its dividend for 29 consecutive years, since it was launched in 1995.
The CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, the world’s biggest single owner of public equities, says a fund of its size needs to be widely diversified across asset classes, because tactical asset allocation would be “very, very tough.” Nicolai Tangen, who runs the $1.8 trillion sovereign wealth fund, also talks about his investment concerns and AI. Tangen speaks on “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations.” This interview was recorded January 22 at the Bloomberg House in Davos.
The Standard Life Active Higher Interest Pension fund aims to provide higher returns than Money Market funds. It does this by investing not only in bank and building society deposits but also in a variety of other instruments including Certificates of Deposits (CDs), Commercial Paper, Covered Bonds, Fixed and Floating Rate Medium Term Notes (MTN), Asset Backed Securities (ABS) and Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS) where, when purchased, repayment is typically expected within 5 years
Top Holdings Fund (%)
SUMITOMO MITSUI TRUST BANK LTD (LONDON) 8.6% of the fund CREDIT AGRICOLE CORP INV BANK 8.5% of the fund DZ BANK 8.5% of the fund MUFG BANK LTD (TOKYO) 8.5% of the fund RABOBANK INTERNATIONAL 8.5% of the fund SMBC EUROPE LONDON 8.5% of the fund MIZUHO BANK 8.5% of the fund KBC BANK NV, LONDON BRANCH 5.4% of the fund THE TORONTO-DOMINION BANK 4.8% of the fund BARCLAYS BANK PLC 2.5% of the fund
ASML Holding N.V. (commonly shortened to ASML, originally standing for Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography) is a Dutch multinational corporation founded in 1984. ASML specializes in the development and manufacturing of photolithography machines which are used to produce computer chips.
Alliance Witan aims to be a core equity holding for investors that delivers a real return over the long term through a combination of capital growth and a rising dividend. The Company invests primarily in global equities across a wide range of industries and sectors to achieve its objective. Formed from the merger of Witan and Alliance
Total Assets: £5,670.0m Shares in Issue: 400,191,982
The top 20 Holdings
Microsoft £190.1m 3.4% of the fund Amazon £189.9m 3.3% of the fund Visa £161.4m 2.8% of the fund Meta Platforms £109.3m 1.9% of the fund Alphabet £87.7m 1.5% of the fund Diageo £87.0m 1.5% of the fund Aon £85.2m 1.5% of the fund Netflix £82.5m 1.5% of the fund Eli Lilly £76.9m 1.4% of the fund UnitedHealth Group £75.4m 1.3% of the fund Mastercard £67.0m 1.2% of the fund Taiwan Semiconductor £63.6m 1.1% of the fund Safran £62.9m 1.1% of the fund Philip Morris Intl £61.1m 1.1% of the fund Petrobras £57.8m 1.0% of the fund NVIDIA £57.7m 1.0% of the fund HDFC Bank £57.1m 1.0% of the fund Unilever £55.4m 1.0% of the fund Mercadolibre £52.5m 0.9% of the fund Airbus £50.3m 0.9% of the fund
Top 10 holdings 20.1% Top 20 holdings 30.4%
It today pays 6.73p a share for its March 2025 dividend
Premier Miton Global Renewables Trust PLC announces that at close of business on 28 February 2025 its investments were as follows:
Company
% of total net assets
Greencoat UK Wind
7.0%
Clearway Energy A Class
6.5%
SSE
6.0%
Northland Power
5.5%
Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust
5.3%
Drax Group
5.1%
Bonheur
5.1%
Grenergy Renovables
5.0%
RWE
4.9%
NextEnergy Solar Fund
4.4%
National Grid
3.9%
Gore Street Energy Storage Fund
3.9%
Foresight Solar Fund
3.7%
Cadeler
3.6%
AES
2.6%
SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust
2.4%
Enefit Green
2.3%
Aquila European Renewables Income Fund
2.2%
Harmony Energy Income Trust
2.0%
GCP Infrastructure Investments
1.9%
Greencoat Renewable
1.8%
Fastned
1.7%
Corporacion Acciona Energias Renovables
1.7%
Polaris Renewable Energy
1.4%
Orsted
1.2%
MPC Energy Solutions
0.9%
7C Solarparken
0.9%
VH Global Sustainable Energy Opportunities
0.8%
Serena Energia
0.8%
Scatec Solar
0.6%
Boralex
0.5%
US Solar Fund
0.4%
Westbridge Renewable Energy
0.3%
Cloudberry Clean Energy
0.2%
Cash/Net Current Assets
3.4%
Courtesy of The London Stock Exchange
At close of business on 28 February 2025 the total net assets of Premier Miton Global Renewables Trust PLC amounted to £35.6 million. The sector breakdown and geographical allocation were as follows:
The L&G Energy Transition Commodities UCITS ETF The L&G Energy Transition Commodities UCITS ETF aims to track the performance of the Solactive Energy Transition Commodity TR Index
This ETF is designed for investors: (1) looking to grow their money in an investment which can form part of their existing savings portfolio; and (2) familiar with commodity futures contracts and the particular features of the Index, including spot, roll and collateral return.
The L&G Global Equity Fixed Weights (50:50) Index Pension Fund is an investment fund with £3,184.0m assets under management.
The investment objective of the fund is to provide diversified exposure to UK and overseas equity markets. The fund will invest 50% in the UK and 50% overseas. The fund’s overseas asset distribution is fixed with 17.5% in North America, 17.5% in Europe (ex UK), 8.75% in Japan and 6.25% in Asia Pacific (ex Japan).
Top Holdings:-
ASTRAZENECA 3.6% of the fund SHELL 3.2% of the fund HSBC HOLDINGS 2.6% of the fund UNILEVER 2.5% of the fund RELX GROUP 1.4% of the fund BP 1.3% of the fund GSK 1.3% of the f% of the fund RIO TINTO 1.2% of the fund DIAGEO 1.2% of the fund APPLE 1.2% of the fund
BAE Systems, provide some of the world’s most advanced, technology-led defence, aerospace and security solutions. They employ a skilled workforce of around 107,000 people in more than 40 countries. Working with customers and local partners, they develop, engineer, manufacture, and support products and systems to deliver military capability, protect national security and people, and keep critical information and infrastructure secure
The Legal & General Cash Trust is a fund investing in near cash securities.
This fund is designed for investors looking to preserve their money from an investment in deposits and short term instruments.
Top Ten Holdings:-
KBC Bank 4.7% of the fund DZ Bank 4.7% of the fund Nationwide Building Society 4.7% of the fund Mizuho Bank 4.4% of the fund Rabobank 4.4% of the fund Credit Agricole 4.0% of the fund Goldman Sachs 4.0% of the fund Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank 3.9% of the fund National Bank of Canada 3.9% of the fund BNP Paribas 3.7% of the fund
Another month, guess what, take a lucky guess, it is the same old story, HM Government, spends more money than it receives via taxes and duties. Now we are in a post Covid 19 world. UK’s HM Government needs to fund many new demands. https://www.dmo.gov.uk
Another deficit month, thus to bridge the gap, needs to borrow on the bond market in February 2025, the HM Government had to borrow money to meet the difference between tax revenues and public sector expenditure. The term for this is the PSNCR: The Public Sector Net Cash Requirement. There were “only” 10 auctions of Gilts (UK Government Bonds) by the UK Debt Management Office to raise cash for HM Treasury:-
27-Feb-2025 4 3/8% Treasury Gilt 2040 £3,092.07 Million 25-Feb-2025 1 1/8% Index-linked Treasury Gilt 2035 £1,914.91 Million 19-Feb-2025 4 3/8% Treasury Gilt 2028 4,250.00 £4,259.70 Million 18-Feb-2025 4% Treasury Gilt 2063 £1,726.72 Million 12-Feb-2025 0 5/8% Index-linked Treasury Gilt 2045 £874.09 Million 05-Feb-2025 1½% Green Gilt 2053 £947.37 Million 04-Feb-2025 4 3/8% Treasury Gilt 2030 £5,335.55 Million
£3,092.07 Million + £1,914.91 Million + £4,259.70 Million + £1,726.72 Million + £874.09 Million + £947.37 Million + £5,335.55 Million = £18,150.41 Million
£18,150.41 Million = £18.15041 Billion
On another way of looking at it, is in the 28 days Feb 2025, HM Government borrowed:- £648.2289286 Million each day for the 28 days.
We are fortunate, while the global banking and financial markets still has the confidence in HM Government to buy the Gilts (Lend money to the UK), the budget deficit keeps rising. What is also alarming, is the dates these bonds maturing from 2028 to 2063. All long-term borrowings, we are mortgaging our futures, but at least “We Are In It Together……“
The L&G Cyber Security Innovation UCITS ETF aims to provide exposure to companies engaged in the cyber security industry.
Fund size $15.8m
Top 10 constituents (%) IonQ 12.4% of the fund Fortinet 3.7% of the fund Broadcom 3.5% of the fund CrowdStrike 3.4% of the fund eMemory Technology 3.3% of the fund Cloudflare 3.2% of the fund A10 Networks 3.2% of the fund CyberArk 2.9% of the fund Arista Networks 2.9% of the fund F7 2.9% of the fund
Top 10 constituents 41.6% of the fund Rest of Index 58.4% of the fund Number of constituents in Index 36
Courtesy of Legal and General Investment Management
The Company aims to provide superior total returns and outperform the MSCI All Country World Index over the long-term by investing in companies based around the world.
Assets of £3044.2m
Top 10 Sector % of assets Microsoft Technology Software 6.7% of the fund Amazon.Com Media 6.7% of the fund Nvidia Technology – Semi & Hardware 5.1% of the fund Meta Platforms Media 3.7% of the fund LVMH Retail 3.5% of the fund TSMC Technology – Semi & Hardware 3.1% of the fund Mastercard Financial Services 2.5% of the fund UnitedHealth Health Services & Systems 2.2% of the fund Exxon Mobil Energy 2.1% of the fund Otis Worldwide Industrial Cyclicals 2.1% of the fund
The Henderson International Income Trust is a London listed investment trust.
Total assets £395.39M
Share price of 168.00p Estimated Net Asset Vale 189.01p Discount / Premium of -11.12% Yield 4.43%
Top 10 holdings (%) Microsoft 4.7% of the trust Home Depot 3.0% of the trust Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing 2.9% of the trust Sony Group 2.9% of the trust CME Group 2.7% of the trust nVent Electric 2.7% of the trust Coca-Cola 2.6% of the trust Nordea Bank 2.5% of the trust Honeywell International 2.3% of the trust American Tower 2.2% of the trust
USDV is an ETF that holds high quality US stocks that pay healthy dividends
Top Ten holdings:-
1 CHEVRON CORP ORD 2.24% of the fund 2 REALTY INCOME CORP ORD 2.21% of the fund 3 XCEL ENERGY INC ORD 1.83% of the fund 4 EDISON INTERNATIONAL ORD 1.75% of the fund 5 WEC ENERGY GROUP INC ORD 1.73% of the fund 6 KENVUE INC ORD 1.73% of the fund 7 KIMBERLY-CLARK CORP ORD 1.72% of the fund 8 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP ORD 1.60% of the fund 9 ABBVIE INC ORD 1.54% of the fund 10 ARCHER-DANIELS-MIDLAND CO ORD 1.54% of the fund
The FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF (VHYG) is a Vanguard ETF owning shares in high dividend companies.
Number of stocks 2,135 Total assets $815.1 Million
This ETF tracks the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index
Top ten holdings:-
JPMorgan Chase & Co 2.28% of the fund Exxon Mobil Corp 1.68% of the fund Home Depot Inc/The 1.35% of the fund Procter & Gamble Co/The 1.35% of the fund Johnson & Johnson 1.19% of the fund AbbVie Inc 1.03% of the fund Bank of America Corp 1.02% of the fund Chevron Corp 0.89% of the fund Wells Fargo & Co 0.85% of the fund Merck & Co Inc 0.82% of the fund
The M&G Managed Growth Fund is a fund of funds, that invests in other M&G Funds.
At least 70% of the fund is invested in other funds to give exposure to a range of assets from anywhere in the world. The fund may also invest directly in these assets and use derivatives. In aggregate, at least 70% of the fund’s assets will be invested in company shares, either directly or via other funds.
The M&G Global AI Themes Fund is a relatively new fund that seeks to identify opportunities where artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a potential driver to long-term revenue growth or profit margin expansion. They look for innovations through provision or adoption of Al, which they expect will cause changes in the way existing markets or businesses operate. At least 80% of the fund is invested in the shares of companies in the following three categories: AI Enablers (providing key underlying AI technology), AI Providers (supplying AI services to end users) and AI Beneficiaries (companies that meaningfully benefit from using AI).
