Earlier this month, Kent County Council and bankrupt Northamptonshire County Council announced they were refinancing LOBO loans taken out from state-owned RBS. Kent County Council refinanced LOBO loans worth £60m at around 4.2% interest, mostly with a loan from the government’s Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) at 2.21% interest. Northamptonshire County Council did the same for a £20 million LOBO loan. LOBOs are expensive long-term loans we consider illegitimate for reasons outlined in chapter 5 in our recent report on the citizen debt audit in the London borough of Newham. Following the announcement of loan refinancing savings, we conducted an... [continues]