The Bank of England said on Friday it would not sell any long-dated government bonds from its £522 billion ($690 billion) debt pile over the coming quarter, the first time it has scheduled no such sales since it began long-dated gilt auctions in January 2023.
In September 2025 the BoE said it would gradually shift its debt sales away from bonds with maturities of over 20 years due to reduced market demand, and its indicative calendar then showed no long-dated debt sales planned for July-September 2026.
Governor Andrew Bailey has said he was still committed to unwinding the hundreds of billions of pounds of gilt purchases the BoE made from 2009 to 2021 under its quantitative easing policy.
But some politicians and investors have criticised sales of long-dated gilts in particular as they are trading far below the price the BoE originally paid for them when interest rates were much lower.
The BoE says the QE programme helped support the economy and that the timing of debt sales does not affect the long-term impact of the programme on Britain’s public finances.
Over the 12 months to September 2026, the BoE aims to reduce its gilt holdings by £70 billion through a mix of outright sales and not reinvesting the proceeds of bonds that mature, a smaller reduction than the £100 billion it did the year before.
During the next three months, the BoE will hold two £600 million auctions of medium-dated gilts with maturities of 7-20 years and three £725 million auctions of short-dated gilts with maturities of 3-7 years.
The BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee will vote on the pace of asset sales for the next 12 months at its September meeting.
($1 = 0.7567 pounds)