MPs have accused the Treasury of short-changing the taxpayer by selling off £3.3 billion of the student loan book for just £1.7 billion.
The public accounts committee said that the sale of the debt to unnamed private investors, hedge funds and pensions funds a year ago to reduce the deficit was “for far too little” and the loan book could not be sold off “at any price”.
Labour said the report showed taxpayers had been “ripped off”. The committee said that if the tranche of debt had been held on to for a few more years, as students repaid their loans, the value would have been far greater.
The loans in question were issued before 2012 when tuition fees were £3,000 a year, so are