Ministers have stepped in to further rein in the amount of interest charged on English student loans, after rates rose more slowly than expected.
The Westminster government announced in June that it was capping the maximum rate of interest on student debt at 7.3 per cent, rather than the standard measure of the retail price index (RPI) of inflation plus 3 per cent, which would have given a rate of 12 per cent from September.
That decision was based the “forecast prevailing market rate” for comparable unsecured personal loans. But the actual market rate is now 6.3 per cent, so the Department of Education has tacked interest to this figure instead, it announced on 10 August.
