PWLB briefing
Monthly Activity
PWLB Monthly Activity Commentary
Volume collapses to £260m post year-end as just 22 borrowers come to market; WAR jumps to a 12-month high of 4.93% on a thinner, smaller-issuer mix
April 2026
PWLB Activity Snapshot — April 2026
| Metric | Apr 2026 | vs Prior Month | vs Last Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| £ Borrowed | £260m | ▼93.9% | ▼79.5% |
| # Loans | 33 | ▼89.0% | ▼66.7% |
| WAR % | 4.93% | ▲33.6bp | ▲36.7bp |
| WAL (yrs) | 3.4 | ▲52.7% | ▲0.2% |
Volume & Loan Activity
- →Activity collapsed post year-end — £260m across 33 loans is the lowest monthly volume since August 2025 (£220m). The drop from March's £4.23bn confirms how heavily the prior month was front-loaded ahead of 31 March.
- →Borrower count down to 22 from 139 in March. Top 5 borrowers (Stoke-on-Trent, Brighton & Hove, Norfolk, Fife, Reading) accounted for 63% of value; top 10 covered 92%.
- →Year-on-year comparison is also weak: April 2025 saw £1.27bn across 99 loans, so this April is meaningfully softer than the equivalent month last year — not just a mechanical reset from March.
Rate & Tenor
- →WAR up 34bp to 4.93% — the highest monthly WAR in the last 12 months. Part is mix-driven (small annuity tails for parish councils printed at 5.3–6.4%), but maturity-bucket rates are also elevated: the 1-year Maturity cluster averaged ~4.8–5.0% versus 4.3–4.5% common in February.
- →WAL extended to 3.4 years from 2.2 in March — the longest since November 2025. The 1–3 year bucket still dominates (55% of value), but the 5–10 year bucket regained share at 12% on the back of Stoke-on-Trent's 10y HRA tranche and Norfolk's medium-tenor Maturity loans.
- →Rate dispersion was wide: 4.46% (Reading, 1y HRA) to 6.41% (Great Chesterford parish annuity). The signal in core local-authority deals is a clear upward drift in funding cost relative to Q1.
WAL Mix & Debt Profile
- →Maturity 67.5% / EIP 32.3% / Annuity 0.3% by value. EIP share lifted from typical ~25–30% as Fife, Stoke-on-Trent, Slough and Gravesham all chose amortising structures for medium-tenor needs.
- →Annuities were entirely small parish/town councils (Trimsaran, Great Chesterford, Dursley, Goole, Kidderminster, Elstow, Brampton Bierlow) — 7 loans totalling just £708k but pulling the WAR average up given their NONE-concession rates of 5.3–6.4%.
- →No loans printed in the 20+ year buckets — a marked absence of long-dated debt this month, consistent with the broader move away from ultra-long tenors seen since December.
Concession Heatmap
- →Certainty -20bps 53.3% / HRA -60bps 46.5% — a near 50/50 split. Concessionary borrowing accounts for 99.7% of April value, with only the small parish annuities at NONE.
- →HRA -60bps WAR 4.71% vs Certainty 5.12% — a 41bp gap, broadly in line with the 40bp tier differential. HRA borrowing concentrated in 1–5y maturities (Reading, Fife, Brighton & Hove, Gravesham), reflecting housing revenue financing needs.
- →Heatmap hot spots: Certainty × 1-3y (£61m) and HRA × 1-3y (£83m). The 0-1y row is entirely Certainty (£36m), and the 5-10y row is split between Certainty (Stoke EIP, Slough, Norfolk) and small NONE annuities.
Top Borrowers — April 2026
| Borrower | Total £m | Loans | WAR % | WAL (y) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stoke-on-Trent City Council | 45.0 | 3 | 5.19 | 5.7 |
| Brighton & Hove Council | 35.0 | 1 | 4.69 | 3.0 |
| Norfolk County Council | 30.0 | 4 | 5.22 | 6.4 |
| Fife Council | 30.0 | 2 | 4.58 | 2.4 |
| Reading Borough Council | 25.0 | 1 | 4.46 | 1.0 |
| Slough Borough Council | 20.0 | 2 | 5.31 | 5.3 |
| Thurrock Borough Council | 18.6 | 2 | 4.99 | 1.0 |
| Suffolk County Council | 15.0 | 1 | 5.06 | 1.0 |
| Gravesham Borough Council | 10.9 | 2 | 4.56 | 3.0 |
| Shropshire Council | 10.0 | 1 | 4.97 | 1.0 |
Notable Transactions
- →Stoke-on-Trent City Council £45m across 3 tranches on 13 April — £20m Maturity at 5.32% (10y, HRA -60bps), £15m EIP at 5.12% (2.8y WAL, Certainty), £10m EIP at 5.05% (1.5y WAL, Certainty). The HRA Maturity tranche stands out as the only sizeable 10y print of the month.
- →Reading Borough £25m at 4.46% on 17 April — the lowest rate of any meaningful loan, a 1y HRA Maturity. Brighton & Hove printed £35m at 4.69% (3y, HRA -60bps) on 30 April.
- →Slough Borough drew £10m EIP at 5.35% on 8 April and a further £10m EIP at 5.27% on 9 April — both 5.3y WAL Certainty deals — the small day-on-day rate move illustrating intra-week curve sensitivity.
- →The high-rate tail came from parish/town council annuities: Great Chesterford PC at 6.41% (£245k, 13.4y WAL) and Kidderminster TC at 6.26% (£50k, 9.2y WAL), both NONE-concession.
Treasurer's Note
April is the natural mirror image of March: with year-end refinancings done, only a small cohort of authorities came to market, dominated by housing-led HRA borrowers and a handful of Certainty-tier short-dated maturities. The notable signal is not the volume drop — that was expected — but the rate move. WAR at 4.93% is the highest monthly print in the last 12 months and 37bp above April 2025; even stripping out the small annuity tail, core local-authority Maturity rates printed in the 4.6–5.1% range versus 4.3–4.5% common in February and parts of March. WAL extending to 3.4y on a small sample reflects mix (Stoke 10y HRA, Norfolk medium-tenor Maturities, Slough 5.3y EIPs) more than a genuine return to long-dated risk — the 20+ year buckets remained empty. Watch May for the first read on whether the underlying rate environment has genuinely repriced higher or whether April's elevated WAR reflects thin-market borrower selection.
This commentary is for information only and does not constitute financial advice. Always verify rates and borrowing data directly with PWLB or official sources before making borrowing decisions. Source: DMO public data.