Kent Council Borrowing Exposed: £277.6m PWLB Loans Since May 2023, Interest Rates, Maturity Dates and the 2028 Reorganisation Risk

Since the local elections in May 2023, Kent’s district councils have taken out £277.605 million of new borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) — but the money has not been borrowed evenly across the county. Six councils took out no PWLB loans at all, while one authority signed up to debt running for decades, with repayments scheduled as far ahead as the 2060s.

What follows sets out, in plain English, who borrowed, what type of PWLB loan they chose, their interest rates, how long the loans run, when they mature, and (crucially) how much those loans are likely to cost over time.

First: what do the PWLB loan types actually mean?

Almost all the borrowing in the PWLB data falls into two fixed-rate types:

• Fixed Maturity: the council typically pays interest every half-year, and repays the whole principal in one lump sum at the end (“the maturity date”). 

• Fixed EIP (Equal Instalments of Principal): the council repays the principal in equal instalments (often half-yearly), plus interest on the outstanding balance, so the interest element shrinks over time as the debt is paid down. 

In other words: Maturity loans postpone the “big repayment moment” to the end; EIP loans start paying the capital down steadily.

Who borrowed — and who didn’t

Across the Kent districts, six councils borrowed money from the PWLB between 1 May 2023 and 31 Dec 2025:

• Ashford: £92.0m

• Canterbury: £10.0m

• Folkestone & Hythe: £37.0m

• Gravesham: £81.605m

• Swale: £5.0m

• Thanet: £52.0m

And six councils borrowed nothing at all over the same period, these being:

Dartford, Dover, Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge & Malling, Tunbridge Wells.

Rates: what Kent councils locked in

Borrowing rates in this period range from roughly 4.02% up to 5.80% (the top end driven by long-dated loans). In general, the pattern is what you would expect: longer loans tend to come with higher rates, though timing matters too (loans struck on different days price differently).

The maturity cliff — and why April 2028 matters

Kent is actively planning around Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) assumptions that point to a new council “go-live” / vesting day of 1 April 2028, with shadow elections expected in May 2027. 

That matters because when councils are reorganised, the legal framework for structural change includes mechanisms to transfer functions, property, rights — and liabilities to successor bodies. In plain terms: PWLB debt doesn’t evaporate in a re-organisation; it follows the public body that inherits the function. 

On the headline maturities (final repayment dates):

• £103.700m of the borrowing has a final maturity before 1 April 2028

• £173.905m matures on/after 1 April 2028

So even before we talk about interest, a large slice of Kent’s borrowing – 63% – is plainly a post-reorganisation inheritance problem — not for today’s councils to “deal with later”, but for the successor structures to carry.

(And central government has already flagged that councils in LGR processes should be particularly careful about major financial decisions — including “unplanned borrowing” — during the run-up.)

New: what will each loan actually cost to repay?

This is the part residents almost never get put in front of them in one place: how much cash will leave the council over time because of each loan.

The method (kept simple — and clearly labelled)

Because PWLB repayment schedules are typically half-yearly and can include “broken periods”, the exact cashflows depend on payment dates. For a layman-friendly estimate, we’ve calculated:

• Fixed Maturity loans: interest is estimated on a simple time basis over the term (principal outstanding throughout).

• Fixed EIP loans: interest is estimated using an equal-principal repayment approach consistent with PWLB’s EIP concept (interest falls as principal reduces). 

These figures should be read as good-faith estimates for the scale of the bill — not a substitute for the councils’ detailed treasury cashflow schedules.

The Kent-wide bill (estimated)

Across all the Kent district PWLB loans taken out between 1 May 2023 – 31 Dec 2025:

• Principal borrowed: £277.605m

• Estimated total interest over the life of the loans: £112.551m

• Estimated total cash paid (principal + interest): £390.156m

• Estimated remaining repayments after 1 April 2028 (principal still to repay + future interest): £215.546m

That final number is the political and financial sting in the tail: well over £200m of the repayment burden sits on the far side of LGR’s expected 1 April 2028 “go-live” date.

Estimated cost summary by council (May 2023–Dec 2025 PWLB settlements)

A standout: Gravesham’s borrowing is not the largest in pure principal terms — but because of the very long maturities, the estimated lifetime interest cost is enormous relative to the amount borrowed.

The transparency problem: residents rarely get the “what is this for?” answer

Councils do publish treasury material — and they are expected to have formal strategies and indicators agreed through democratic processes (typically Full Council) as part of their treasury management framework. But what residents often don’t get is a clear, plain-English line that says:

“This specific tranche of PWLB borrowing is for this specific scheme.”

Instead, borrowing is commonly presented in aggregate: affordability ratios, maturity profiles, and overall financing needs — technically correct, but not the same as a resident-friendly explanation of purpose. And while national guidance talks about transparency and democratic accountability, that doesn’t automatically translate into borrowing being communicated as a simple “this loan funds X”; which of course, would be simple and easy for residents to understand.

The Shepway Vox Team

Journalism For The People NOT The Powerful